The Isolation of Inner Sakura
by Goatis
Summary: When her comrades are busy and incapacitated Sakura battles for her life against Uchiha Itachi.  But she finds out that she can win much better in the realm of her mind that in the real world...slight LeeSaku
1. Chapter 1

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Chapter 1

The Encounter

"Just watch the feet and hands." I thought to myself, gathering chakra to my fists after my first volley of shuriken. Dodge, twist, I punched at where his side had been, only to be thrown back by the force of the clone's explosion. I wasn't hurt too badly, but my face felt slightly warm and I had some nasty burns on my arms and legs where the explosion had caught me before blowing me back. I looked around the clearing where the fight was taking place; I didn't see any of my fellow teammates. But I could hear Naruto in the trees as he fought. I could hear the shouting from Naruto as he used his Kage Bunshin and the falling trees as Kisame used his large sword to fell trees and carve out a path in their fighting area.

I hadn't seen Kakashi senpai since the beginning of the battle, when he had just suddenly fallen to the ground after a few moments of fighting with Uchiha Itachi. He must have fallen under the Tsukiyomi. Both Naruto and I had been warned of it after Naruto's first encounter with the S-Class criminal, when Kisame and Itachi had come for him. It had been the first time Sasuke-kun had tried to take his revenge, only to be brutally defeated physically and mentally. Only the legendary Sannen's presence had saved Naruto from capture and probable death. But now they were back, and with no legendary sannen to back us up. Even the copy ninja Hatake Kakashi had fallen beneath that poison-like stare.

I glanced around turning in all directions, trying to sense the enemy. There! He was hidden in the tree just behind me. I knew that he would see through any attempt at making a clone, but if I used an earth technique...

I threw a smoke bomb down on the ground to conceal my movements and used the earth technique, darting snake, where you wait under the ground to discover the enemy and can formulate a plan of attack. I could feel him above the ground every where he stepped and used the next jutsu in my plan. Forming the seals I whispered the name, hidden mist no jutsu. I had recently learned the technique from Kakashi during our frequent missions. When in the wave country on our first accidental A-rank mission, Zabuza had used it on us to reduce the effectiveness of Kakashi's transplanted Sharingan. But here it would be a help rather than a hindrance.

But it wouldn't be enough, not with the infamous Uchiha that even Sasuke-kun couldn't beat. So I formed Shadow Clones, one of the benefits of traveling with a show off was that, he was always willing to show off his techniques and teach them to me. While I could only sustain five at a time, they would still be a great help.

I gave the orders to surround him and went up and hid myself in the mist just outside of the area I'd sent the clones into, then had them one at a time dodge in and out of the mist that I had surrounded him in trying to catch him off guard with even a single hit. The ground was becoming marred with large pot holes as my hits all missed. It was as if he were just playing with my clones waiting for the real one to appear.

Then with a few simple movements he dispelled all of my clones, and I felt him coming. Even in the mist with my chakra dispersed and my own signature dampened to evade detection he knew exactly where I was. But I would surprise him. I thought to myself, I raised my arm gathering a massive amount my chakra into my hand and slammed my fist into the ground larger than life. The Earth shattered like a porcelain doll hit with a baseball bat. I dove in and out of the earth evading and searching using the mist as cover and the broken ground to my advantage.

Using a modified version of the tree climbing exercises I ran and jumped along the broken up ground using what Kakashi liked to call prairie dog no jutsu. I had developed it to work with my fighting style since I wasn't that strong in hand to hand combat. The jutsu sped up my movements and allowed me to have tunnel vision or a 'second sight' to move at the speed of light, allowing me to traverse the underground passages and pop up exactly where I wanted with the speed only Naruto and the Uchiha's seemed capable of. It made it seem as if there were a hundred Sakura's popping out of the ground like prairie dogs in a field.

I didn't have enough chakra left for something large like this again but I continued to fight, hoping that I was wearing him down or at least taking up enough time for Naruto to finish off Kisame. If I lost, and Kisame was still able to fight, then Naruto wouldn't stand a chance, the Uchiha was just too strong.

I dove out of the hole I was in and flung myself bodily into the man covered from head to toe in black and red, body checking him and then darting away back to the safety of the fissures of earth. I panted as I raced along the next crevice feeling the strain from chakra overuse and fatigue catching up to me. I once again threw myself feet first at his chest only to be side stepped and thrown back against the ground. I scrambled back into the tunnel, trying to recover my breath that had been forced out as my back hit the ground with such force. I could feel several broken ribs and blood ran down my right leg from a gash I had gotten sometime during the fight. I had landed a hit the last time, maybe that was a sign that he was getting tired. I darted back up to the surface from the other side of an especially large earth break and pulled my last two kunai from my pouch. I dropped down behind him planning to slash his Achilles tendons only to have his clone once more blow up in my face before I could touch it; the force of the explosion threw me back against the hard rock I had just come from behind.

I saw him moving out of the mist towards me, and I tried to make for a tunnel once more but the shooting pain in my right arm and leg left me gasping in pain. I looked down to find my arm hanging at an odd angle and my leg while it wasn't broken had been badly burned so that I could see muscles and in one place the bone protruding from the skin. I tried in vain to use my left side to move myself out of the way but I knew it wasn't any use. I was about to die and I couldn't do a thing about it. The kunai came and I closed my eyes waiting for death. But it didn't come; instead there was a sharp pain in my left arm as the blade sliced into the tricep by my elbow severing the ligaments that connected the muscle to the bone effectively nullifying the use of my arm and any chakra that I might still have been able to gather into that arm for a strike.

He approached slowly, walking out of the mist until he stood at my sprawled feet looking down at me with that smirk, the same smirk Sasuke used to use when he was particularly pleased with himself. It pissed me off. I shoved chakra into my left leg and kicked out at his knee, feeling a great satisfaction when he grunted in pain. He had dodged most of the attack, and I didn't have enough chakra left to even dislocate his knee, but it still felt good as I connected with his thigh. His hand instantly gripped my ankle and pulled it aside.

He knelt between my legs and I looked up at him in confusion for a moment before I was pulled into those blood red eyes. I had a last moment to hear Inner Sakura consciously thinking the inane thoughts "pretty, pretty." and then I was pulled into the world of Tsukiyomi.

When I opened my eyes I was surrounded by red, I looked around confused. The sky was red, the ground at my feet was black and there were only the faintest flickerings of white where they came together. "This must be that alternate dimension Kakashi told me about, from when he had been trapped within the Uchiha's Tsukiyomi." I thought, as I noticed that I was strapped to a T shaped cross and found the man standing at my feet.

He seemed to glare up at me with the katana in his hands before speaking. "This is my world, I control the time and space here. For three straight days I will stab you with my katana, and we will see how long your mind can take the pain." I just stared over his shoulder as my inner self ran at him silently, and tried to not scream out as the sword pierced my flesh. But I couldn't prevent the scream from tearing its way out of my throat as the agony ripped through me. I gasped for breath, but the sword wasn't with drawn and I looked down at him, only to find the sword hanging from my gut and Inner Sakura trying to beat his head in.

She had jumped on his back and had gotten his one arm trapped at his side with her legs and was wailing on the back of his head with her fist while the other held onto him trying to choke the life from him. He made swipes at her arm as he almost clumsily tried to stop the beating as she consistently rammed her fist into the exact same spot over and over. Finally he just grabbed a fistful of her hair and managed to throw her. I started looking at my bindings then to see if I could perhaps get free and help my inner being. But there was no way down from the cross, the bands appeared to be iron and he had said that he controlled this place, so I guessed that I couldn't get free. I could only watch as my Inner self and the Uchiha rolled about on the floor like little children punching and clawing.

It was strange to watch the Uchiha rolling around on a floor with anyone let alone a duplicate of myself. Who was doing a good job of landing all those hits I had missed in our fight outside in the real world, I noticed in admiration. But he had said that this was a world that he controlled, perhaps he had to use a lot of concentration just to hold the world in place. Inner Sakura threw him a few feet in the air and was instantly there to smash a knee into his gut and as she pulled her arm back to smash it into his face, the red and black world flickered with white and then faded. I opened my eyes to see the man in front of me collapsed atop my painful injuries.

We were back in the real world; I could hear Inner Sakura screaming in rage inside my head. "I almost had him!" She shrieked shrilly. "Come back and fight me!" I just stared down at the man lying slumped against my body, what I wouldn't have given for one good arm and a kunai right then. He stirred and struggled to push himself upright. When he finally raised his eyes to mine, there was no expression on his face as he panted. It was clear that he was exhausted. But there was a glimmer of something behind his eyes, was it fear? Or something else?

I just glared at him, but I couldn't help the taunt that came out of my mouth, foolish as it was. "Wanna go again?" I met his eyes with the anger fed me from inner Sakura, ignoring the fear and doubt that I would even able to do it twice. But he ignored the jibe and pushed himself to his feet a kunai slipping into his hand from the large sleeve of his black and red coat.

I knew death was coming, he couldn't break me mentally, so he would have to physically kill me and then he would go and do the same to Naruto if he possibly could.

I just watched him; I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of looking away or closing my eyes as he killed me. I wouldn't be fearful and weak as my death loomed before me at the hands of Uchiha Itachi.

Instead I thought of Sasuke, picturing his face. And I smiled. At least I could pretend that my last sight on this earth was of Sasuke. He looked so much like him it was easy. I looked the personification of death in the face and grinned as he lifted the kunai.


	2. Chapter 2

The Solitude of Inner Sakura

Chapter 2

Getting Home Alive

I looked the personification of death in the face and grinned as he lifted the kunai. But just as he was preparing to end it, a shout came at the edge of the forest. It was Naruto, and I breathed a sigh of relief, he was alright. That meant that either Kisame had run off or was dead. He'd probably run off, Akatski were big fans of the saying, "run today and fight tomorrow". Naruto came rushing forward to engage the enemy, only to have him disappear just before his outstretched fist could reach him. It surprised even me; I didn't think he had enough chakra left to do anything. But I realized how foolish that thought was even as I thought it. He was an Uchiha, they have naturally large chakra reserves.

Naruto glanced around for the missing criminal trying to ward off any attack, but after a few minutes it was apparent to me that he had retreated and wouldn't be engaging us again until he restored his chakra levels and healed up a bit.

"Naruto!" I yelled, trying to get his attention, when he finally looked down at me though his eyes were filled with concern. "Is Kakashi alright?" I asked, as I tried to stretch out the only uninjured part of my body.

My left leg was burned badly during the fight from the exploding shadow clones and my right arm lay broken at my side hanging at a funny angle from being thrown back by the last explosion. My left arm dripped blood steadily from the deep wound that had severed my ligaments, it would need to be bound but any healing techniques would have to wait until we got back to Konoha or until I could use at least one of my arms again. But I doubted that I would be able to do any healing any time soon. Thankfully we weren't more than a day from Konoha if we traveled fast.

The only problem now was that I could barely walk and Kakashi was unconscious. I wasn't willing to bet any money on Kakashi waking up before Tsunade checked him out. Under ordinary circumstances I would have handled his medical care, but I couldn't do anything right now.

"Kakashi is out cold, that Uchiha bastard got him with his eyes and I couldn't wake him, that's why I came for you. But it doesn't look like either of you are going to be doing anything for a while." I grinned up at him despite the pain I was in, today we were victorious. And the next time we fought, I would be better prepared.

"Could you help me up?" I motioned to my good leg. "I can stand on that one while you grab Kakashi, and then you can help me hobble back while you carry Kakashi-senpai over your shoulder." I suggested.

"No way Sakura-chan," I gaped up at him as he refused. Since when did Naruto not want to help his teammates? "I'm going to carry the both of you!" He continued and then he grabbed me around the waist and slung me painfully over his right shoulder. Then ran back into the now battle scarred woods pulling Kakashi from under the bush he had fallen into when his brain could no longer take the pain and shut down. He bent down and threw the unconscious man over his left shoulder and then bounded off through the trees going at twice his regular speed, despite the weight of two extra people on his back.

I clenched my teeth as each leap caused more pain in my ribs till I could hardly breathe through the pain. My arms felt as if they were on fire. I was grateful when the pain slipped away and I welcomed the darkness.

I awoke in the hospital to shouting; blearily I opened my eyes to find myself surrounded by professional medic-nin's as they worked to stop the bleeding in places and repair the damage. The shouting was Tsunade Shishou as she loudly berated Naruto for his recklessness.

"How many times do I have to tell you to use that brain of yours, that's what it's there for!" She shouted poking Naruto in the head with each word she spoke. I smiled a little as I caught his eye.

"Sakura-chan!" He cried, and his face lit up.

"Quiet, Naruto." Tsunade said whacking him on the head once more, and sending him sprawling on the floor. It always amazed her that no matter how old they got, Naruto could still act with that same childlike innocence not to mention the energy of a hyper-active five-year old, Inner Sakura said rearing her head.

"What are you so angry about?" I asked the inner part of myself silently, as I continued to watch the goings on around me and enjoy the spectacular drugs that allowed me to feel as if I were floating on cloud nine.

"I'm pissed that I didn't get to kick that guy's ass. He invaded my territory, and then ran away when he found out it was going to be a little harder than usual, with his tail between his legs! Ooh, I get so hot just thinking about it. Next time I'm gonna grab him and..." I tuned her ranting out as I focused on the opening door as Kakashi tiredly walked into the room and slumped into the chair beside my bed.

There was immediately an orderly hurrying behind him trying to pull him back to his own room to rest, or so I assumed.

"Sakura…" He said, and his voice sounded pained. "You've grown so strong, and still, I'm sorry I couldn't help you. It looks like I need some more training." I just grinned at the mental image of Kakashi going back to the academy and sitting in those tiny desks surrounded by a dozen eight years olds poking and prodding and questioning him.

"Kakashi-senpai, there's no reason to be sorry. He's an S-Class criminal for a reason, he killed his entire clan, who are naturally born with the same innate abilities. It's nothing to be ashamed of that he beat us." He just hmphed, and followed up his sentence.

"Well, you can say that he beat you, I can't say as I did too much." He said looking dejected almost with his eyes downcast toward the floor.

"See! He's mad that he didn't get to fight too!" Inner Sakura yelled triumphantly.

The medic's seemed to be finishing up with my arms and were concentrating on the large burns on my right leg. But before I had a chance to say anything, Shishou spoke up.

"How is it that you were able to avoid the Tsukiyomi, Sakura? You seem to have done a lot of close combat with the Uchiha." She looked down at me seriously, turning her attention to me for the first time and I noticed that Naruto was lying on the floor conscious but dazed.

"Well, Shishou, I used the hidden mist technique at first and threw shadow clones at him trying to cut down on his visibility and keep it as a long range battle. But he dispelled each clone and came right for me even though I had dampened my chakra signature. I shattered the ground and used the ninjutsu I developed, the prairie dog technique, in combination with the fog I had summoned. He made his shadow clone explode and it threw me into a large piece of my own earth jutsu. My arm broke and my leg was so badly burned that it felt broken too. He threw the kunai that cut my ligaments between the triceps and elbow, then..." I paused not knowing whether or not I should tell them how the Tsukiyomi hadn't affected me. "Of course you shouldn't!" Inner Sakura yelled again. "They wouldn't understand even if they did believe you!" I sighed and stared at Naruto down on the floor who was still rubbing his head as he sat up. I decided to keep it simple.

"If Naruto hadn't come bursting out of the tree's just then, I would have been dead. I could see him moving in for the kill as he stood over me. But when Naruto rushed over he just vanished."

"But why not just engage Naruto? You were all but helpless, and Kakashi was unconscious. Naruto would have already been tired from fighting with his partner Kisame-" She was interrupted by Naruto.

"Oh, he was just a warm up for me. Easy, easy!" Naruto laughed, pulling both his hands behind his head in his usually cheerful manner. But today it didn't help cheer me up. I could have died today, despite what I had said to Kakashi about not being ashamed, I was ashamed that I still wasn't strong enough to even help at times. I could only be a distraction. If I couldn't become stronger then how was I supposed to protect Naruto from Itachi or Sasuke-kun from Orochimaru? Or heck, protect Sasuke-kun from himself?

But I couldn't concentrate on the thought, the med-nin's were administering another round of drugs, and I was feeling sleepy. So sleepy, I couldn't keep my eye's open. Maybe I'll just close them for a little while...


	3. Chapter 3

The Solitude of Inner Sakura

Chapter 3

The Nighttime Visitor pt. 1

I spent the next few days in the hospital recuperating from the strain on my still healing body. The broken arm, cut ligament and broken ribs were repaired relatively quickly. But it took several sessions with the med-nin burn specialists to regenerate a lot of the leg tissue resulting from the exploding clone. There had been more damage than even I had understood. A bone specialist had to be brought in to examine the leg where the skin had been burned down to the bone. The bone healing and muscle restoring was considerably painful, and I spent a lot of time between sessions floating in a cloud of pain meds.

The day they told me I could go home I wanted to jump out of my bed and proclaim to the world that I was coming for it, but that was a Naruto thing to do. Not to mention my leg still hurt and if I jumped out of bed I would probably be put right back in bed and definitely not allowed to go home.

And while Naruto and Tsunade-sama came to visit every day, I was just plain sick of hospital food. Besides, I wanted to get back to training. As a young girl I had always thought Sasuke-kun and Naruto were crazy to want to train so much, I mean what was the point of becoming that strong. And just a few years ago when Lee had been injured so badly in his fight against Gaara, I had watched him work himself past the point of exhaustion and collapse while still injured. I hadn't understood why he tried so hard.

But now I had the answer, because I had a reason of my own to become stronger. I wanted to protect those that I loved; I wanted to help them when they needed it and be able to support them even when they didn't. I didn't want to be a hindrance anymore. I didn't want to be left behind, stewing in my own horrible thoughts of failure.

Also, I wanted to try making my own copy of the exploding clone trick he had used, that was a seriously dangerous and cool jutsu. His were basically just timed to explode when the opponent was nearby. If I could turn all five of my own clones into exploders, then maybe I could make it so they'd explode when you dispelled them.

Then the next time I came up against such a powerful close combat enemy, I could use the clones to distract or defeat the enemy while protecting myself and reserving the remainder of my chakra and weapons. In the battle with Uchiha Itachi, I had come dangerously close to exhausting my supply of kunai and shuriken.

'Maybe I should carry some extra weapons scrolls like Tenten does.' I mused to myself as I slid from the bed and my feet touched the cold linoleum coated floor of the hospital. But then Tenten uses special attacks with her weapons, and she summons a lot of them all at once. I rubbed my hand along my chin at the thought of learning a weapons summoning technique.

It would really help keep things long range, unless there was someone too fast for the summons and the attack to take place. Like Itachi. He would never be slow enough for an attack like that to work. Oh, well. I thought to myself about the exploding clones and slipped into my shorts and red top. I wasn't too lost in thought to miss the opening of the door to my room. Thankfully I was decent because Naruto stood in the doorway.

"Oi, Sakura-chan!" He called and charged into the room as I put my sandals on. "I heard you were getting out today, you're all better, ne?

"Yes, I'm fine Naruto. But you knew I was fine yesterday, and the day before that-"

"Ne, ne, Sakura-chan, but you weren't getting out of the hospital yesterday or the day before." And then he laughed that embarrassed guffaw that he usually did while scratching the back of his head. So I ignored him and fastened my kunai and shuriken holder around my right leg. I attached the outer medic skirt over my shorts and made sure my fighting gloves were there before I zipped and buckled it in place, I slid on my elbow protectors and then tied my forehead protector headband style around my hair.

Let's get outta here; I'm looking forward to some real food." I said to Naruto, I knew full well we would end up at Ichiraku but I didn't care right now, so long as I didn't have to eat any more over salted, over cooked, mushy or completely ill-prepared hospital food.

"Alright!" Naruto yelled, running out the door not bothering to wait for me. "Ramen here we come!" I heard him yell as he ran down the hall, while I continued at a slower pace. I could see Naruto bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet waiting for me by the elevator. I joined Naruto by the elevator to wait for it to stop on our floor. That's when I suddenly had the strangest feeling that someone was watching me. The hair stood up on the back of my neck and a shiver ran up my spine.

I glanced around quickly to see who was there; I saw dozens of professional men and women moving back and forth through the hallways. But no one seemed to be paying me any bit of attention. Some doctors and nurses wandered room from room as they inspected patients. A food service orderly distributed food in a big wheeled cart to each room checking them off on his list as he went. A receptionist sat behind her desk talking on the phone while typing furiously on her computer, she pushed her chair back and the wheels sent her careening to the other end of her cubicle to tear off a sheet of paper from the printer and then scoot back to her desk. There were a few non-descript visitors that walked the hall coming or going to visit one patient or another.

But no one screamed "I'm spying on you, Haruno Sakura!" In fact no one was even looking at me at all. I wasn't surprised, but I'd turned around expecting to come face to face with Uchiha Itachi for some reason. Like he was giving me a death glare and was planning on all the ways that he could kill me. But he wasn't there; it was just my wild imagination due to my recent near death experience.

That's all it was, I told myself. You're just being jumpy, no ones following you." I said to myself and Inner Sakura immediately told me that I was being stupid. Of course I ignored her, but that weird feeling...

I shook my head and the elevator dinged and opened. Naruto had been saying something, completely oblivious to my inner musings as usual and he blathered on completely absorbed in his own story telling. I just nodded, but I really had no idea what he had been saying.

But I didn't really need to most of the time, he just liked to talk. If it wasn't busy running his mouth, he was usually busy stuffing food into it.

Even in his sleep he was noisy; he snored, snorted, rolled around rubbing himself and talked in his sleep. This was occasionally distressing as sometimes I heard my name whispered from his lips, it made it incredibly hard to go back to sleep knowing that the man next to you was most likely fantasizing about you in some way.

"What's wrong Sakura?" Naruto asked pausing as we stepped out of the elevator to look at me. He looked unusually serious.

"Oh, nothing Naruto. I'm just happy to be leaving the hospital." I lied. "So...How did you manage to end up in the hospital yesterday?" I asked and watched him blush all the way from his hair line and down past his neck to disappear into his jacket that was almost always zipped up to the middle of his neck. Today it was unzipped to the middle of his chest though revealing his mesh shirt and chest armor as well as the firsts' necklace that he won from Tsunade by learning the remainder of the Rasengan in exactly one week. He almost never went anywhere without it, it was like he thought that it was a sign that his dream of becoming the next Hokage was guaranteed so long as he wore it. Or maybe he just liked it and felt that the priceless necklace was safest around his neck. Yeah, probably.

"Alright, you don't have to tell me." I grinned teasingly. "Let's get going, I'm hungry." I said, and for once I was the one pulling him along to the ramen shop.

I walked home later that evening. After eating we had both spent time in the training field, he had spent the entire time fighting amongst his own clones. I borrowed a few to try out the exploding technique that I wanted to incorporate with my own clones, but since he had so much chakra I just conserved mine for the actual research of perfecting the explosive clone. I almost had it just right when Naruto said he was going to meet Iruka for dinner. I knew better, he was just going to go ambush their old sensei and get him to buy him some ramen. I just smiled and waved saying good-night.

I continued until I was exhausted and then headed home. I fumbled with the key to my apartment and slipped the door closed and locked it behind me. Ino and I had sublet this apartment when we both made chuunin and our parents were deciding to still treat us like children, well, my mother anyway, my father had been K.I.A. a few months after Sasuke left. But I couldn't afford the rent on my own, even with my increased wages.

Tonight I headed straight for the shower bypassing the kitchen on the way; it was a mess, Ino never cleaned up after herself when I was away. When she got home we would go through our usual ritual of yelling at each other me yelling at her to clean it and her yelling back that she would do it when she pleased because I wasn't her mother, but as soon as I went to bed she would clean up the mess. She didn't like being reminded that she was the slob in our apartment. I unzipped and pulled off my vest as soon as the door to the bathroom was open, and I kicked it closed behind me dropping my shirt onto the toilet next to the tub. I pried myself out of my chakra bra that I had been wearing for four straight days while in the hospital. I never trusted those orderlies. My breasts bounced free of the chakra infused material and I rubbed them slightly, feeling the circulation come back into them before I slid out of the rest of my clothes.

I never was quite sure if the sudden increase in my breast size was due to my training with Tsunade or some late growth spurt, but suddenly they were HUGE. For years I had wished for bigger breasts. But now that I had them I felt like they were more of a curse than a benefit.

If Sasuke-kun was living in Konoha I would have flaunted them, but he didn't, and since he was the only one I wanted to show them off for I came up with the chakra bra. The Chakra bra was just an ordinary sports bra infused with chakra.

I found it extremely annoying not to mention dangerous for them to just fly about on a mission. So Whenever I trained or was on a mission I had started binding them back. After a while I wore it whenever I went out, the breasts bounced around and just plain got in the way too much, plus I didn't like most of the attention I got when they were unbound.

So I always looked flat chested, but it was better than the aggravation of dealing with the attention I garnered now or the danger my breasts suddenly flying into my face could cause while I was fighting.

My thoughts drifted to where they usually did as I sat and washed on the bathroom stool. I lathered my body with the soap and though of Sasuke-kun. What he was doing, where he was right now. I shoved those thoughts aside and rinsed, for some reason they felt tainted since my encounter with his older brother. So I rinsed off and began washing my hair. I felt tired and knew that if I got into a steamy bath that I would just fall asleep, so I decided to forgo the bath and stood up drying myself with the small towel. I slipped my shirt around my shoulders in a vest like fashion in case Ino came home as I was walking to my room, but I left it unzipped, it wouldn't go any further up than my ribs anyway without my chakra bra on. I slipped a clean pair of underwear on but simply picked up the rest of my clothes and headed back to my room. I flicked the switch on, but nothing happened. I flicked the switch up and down again, still nothing.

I sighed in annoyance, the bulb must be blown. I didn't want to deal with it; I just wanted to crawl beneath the covers and go to sleep. I dropped my clothes in a pile next to the closet and felt my way to the chest of drawers to find the pajama's I wanted. It was a chilly night and once again I felt that tingling prickle on the back of my neck. I paused what I was doing and turned to look around the darkened room, reaching for a kunai suddenly feeling unsafe in my own home I realized that I had left it in the pile on the floor with my clothes. Instead I pulled my vest tighter around my breasts and searched the darkness.

But there was nothing. Nothing moved, there was no sound of ominous breathing, no strange shadows appeared by the door or window. Still I felt uncomfortable, maybe it was the dark. Everyone deep down is a little afraid of the dark, I really believed that, it was one of the reason's I never liked traveling after dark when on a mission. Even with power houses like Naruto and Kakashi standing next to me, you just never knew what was waiting out there in the darkness. So I walked back to my clothes thinking that I'd rather be safe than sorry and pull my kunai pouch off the floor and set it next to the bed.

But I never made it the five steps to the closet.


	4. Chapter 4

The Solitude of Inner Sakura

Chapter 4

The Nighttime Visitor pt. 2

Thick strong arms wrapped around my arms at my waist and spun me off my feet. I went to scream and found another face smashed into my own, some strange man's mouth covering my own to prevent my screams. Even with an empty apartment, other people would hear if I screamed for help. I fought for breath and tried to bite his lips. But just as quickly as he had come upon me, he suddenly dropped me. My feet hit the floor but gravity overwhelmed my still damp body and I slipped on the varnished wood of my bedroom floor landing with a soft thump on my rear.

The man grabbed my ankles and yanked me toward him; it was so sudden that I fell back. As my shoulder blades hit the floor, the thoughts entered my brain that I needed to get off the ground and not let the man get on top of me. I pushed up and launched my body at the man trying to throw him off balance for all the good it would do. He was twice my size even in the dark I could tell that he outweighed me by about 2 to 1 in his favor. But we were in a small room, so maybe I could turn that to my favor since I knew where everything was and the tiny space would leave me more room to maneuver than him.

But as I rolled over his shoulder trying to form any kind of plan, the man's palm brushed over my breast, I gasped in shock at the sensations that ran through me pausing for only a second. But that was all he needed, his hands clamped onto my waist again tossing me down onto the floor once more as if I were a rag doll. I tried to keep my feet, but the man was just too fast. He has to be a ninja, I thought as I tried to scramble backwards away from his strong grasping hands this time.

He grabbed my ankles and just pulled me back and threw his body weight on top of me knocking the breath out of me I had been gathering to scream for help.

I lay there under the unknown man and gasped for breath, his weight made it hard to take in a breath while he continued to lay pressed down on top of me, crushing me down into the floor so that my lungs couldn't get full enough to do more than pant raggedly in an effort to stay alive.

I vaguely understood that he had clothes on, and that if he was going to try something perverted he would have taken them off. But I was too busy trying to breathe to form any kind of statement or question.

"I assume that I have your attention, for the time being." The voice that spoke next to my ear chilled me to the core. Even my frantic attempts at breathing froze within my chest as my heart tried to beat its way out of my chest like an angry bird pecking at the bars of its cage.

"Good." Came that smooth voice once more. "I am going to pull back a bit so you can breathe, but if you try to scream I promise you, you won't be pleased." I just nodded silently hoping that Ino hadn't been home when he came and that I had been right in assuming she was out with Shikamarou and Chouji.

He immediately pulled back enough for me to take a normal breath but he grabbed my wrists holding them down. In my initial fear I had just allowed him to get a better hold on me. I cursed the panic that I had allowed to grab me and get me into an even worse situation.

"Now, I think we should finish where we left off the other day." I immediately felt the kunai point at my throat.

"Fuck you, you couldn't disable me with your doujutsu so you come and stick that at my throat! What's wrong Itachi; did I make you feel like less of a man?" I taunted him, which was a stupid thing to do with anyone who has something sharp pointed at your neck, but especially with Uchiha Itachi.

The blade pressed a little into the flesh at the side of my neck where my pulse was beating frantically as if trying to escape. I could feel the sharp pain as he broke skin and the blood dribbled down the side of my neck heading toward the floor. I lay there silently waiting for what was to come next. I didn't want to die, but I didn't see any way around it. If I screamed for help and someone actually came, I knew he would just kill them and then finish what he had started with me.

"You should watch your mouth, Kunoichi. It's a bad habit to use such foul language, and hardly becoming a lady." He remonstrated, never changing his voice. His tone never wavered from that smooth detachment in which his tone always implied superiority, now it was sounding to me as if he were imitating the way he thought a father would speak as if we were just having a polite discussion over dinner. I hissed at him my breath sliding through my teeth, why didn't he just get it over with? What was he waiting for? I didn't like the image's that flew through my mind.

But he continued to hold the kunai at my throat and stare down at me. At least I thought he was looking down at me, it was practically pitch black in the room only the light of the moon shining through the far window allowed me to see the outline of his body above me. His face was indiscernible in silhouette and I found that slightly disturbing. The only thing I could make out was the hair surrounding his face and falling over his shoulder tied back with a faintly white ribbon. It occurred to me, that while I couldn't see his face he could see mine, even in the darkness of the room. "He can probably see other things too." Chuckled Inner Sakura as I inwardly groaned, that yes it did feel as if my shirt had fallen wide open.

I was just about to say fuck it and try to move again to at least cover my breasts when Itachi pulled the kunai away from my throat and lifted us both off the floor. He lifted me off the floor holding both my wrists in his large fist and grabbed my chin with the other. If I hadn't been working myself to exhaustion I'd have more chakra left and could've broken free. But right at the moment I didn't have enough to make more than a small dent in the wall of my bedroom. His hand held my chin and turned my eyes to his. Standing up next to the window cast light on his face and for the first time since this began I could see his face. The eyes were that strange and beautiful pinwheel shape again. They pulled at me, and before the world turned red I heard Inner Sakura, she was rubbing her hands together and giggling in anticipation "Oh, goody. I'm gonna get some company."

Once again I was in the clutches of that cursed cross in the Tsukiyomi. Unfortunately, being within this world did not automatically provide me with any extra clothes. I looked down at my own body at the black low rise panties and the shirt I hadn't bothered to zip up at all. It hung there barely covering anything allowing the Uchiha in front of me to have an eyeful. Thankfully I hadn't gone to my room in nothing but a towel; I had a feeling that I would be situated on the cross in nothing but my skin. Itachi gave me a brief look and then turned back to survey the rest of this world, presumably looking for Inner Sakura. He spent a long time looking for her, so long in fact that I started to think that the last time had been a fluke and that I was trapped here all by myself. But then she was just suddenly there.

I spotted her before he did as she was behind me and crept up on him. She was shamelessly going to attack him dressed in nothing but our skivvy's and the wide open shirt! She snuck up behind him and put her hands over his eyes and crooned in her self-delighted sing-song that sounded just like my own voice. "Guess Who?" She pulled her hands back as he whirled to punch her in the face, but she easily ducked and rammed her shoulder into his chest knocking him back a couple of steps and off balance. Then she jumped on him throwing her arms around his head and squeezing, nearly smothering him in our breasts as she rode him down to the black dirt that made up the ground in this world.

Then she used our legs to push herself back up and jump on his chest, forcing all his breath out of his body. Then she jumped in the air and flipped, landing a few feet to my right. "That's for nearly suffocating us." She said with her hands on her hips. She was grinning though as she stood there.

"Isn't this wonderful?" She asked enthusiastically. Pulling wide the vest to my horror. "Finally someone gets to appreciate these gorgeous babies." She said looking down and admiring her own breasts. "You idiot! What's wrong with you! He's not admiring them; he's trying to kill us while we're half naked! Then he's going to leave us to be found in that embarrassing pose!"

"I would never be so rude." Itachi said katana now in hand. He carefully stepped to his left preparing to confront the free moving woman in his carefully constructed world. Inner Sakura just jumped up and down clapping her hands in excitement.

"This is great!" She said pulling the pose that we'd seen Naruto do so many time's when he turned into Naruko, minus the clouds. She bent over and blew him a kiss letting her breasts hang free of the vest. I couldn't watch the humiliating behavior. I just hung my head and squeezed my eyes shut.

"Who would have expected an alternate personality to be able to breach the Tsukiyomi?" Itachi calmly said still circling Inner Sakura; his usual toneless voice seemed different, curious almost.

"Another personality?" Inner me asked. "What are you talking about?" She began to point at her forehead to show him the tattoo like words formed on her forehead when he suddenly lunged forward and plunged the sword into her chest.

I screamed as the pain seemed to split open my chest. The world seemed to bend as I gasped for breath when the pain eased. I looked up to find Inner Sakura firmly holding the katana with both hands, an angry look on her face.

"I am Inner Sakura. NOT some alternate personality. I am her INNERMOST strengths and desires; we are not a separate entity. We are one and the same!" And with that, she pulled the sword out of his grip. My hands burned as hers caught on the edge of the sword. But it was quickly gone and she had the sword pointed at the Uchiha. He looked caught off guard and hesitated a few seconds before pulling another sword into the world and into his own hands.

The sounds of metal rang through my ears as they clashed together almost angrily. I watched as my Inner Self spun and flashed him on purpose for a second. She looked like she was having fun, the wild grin that lit her face as she parried and slashed at him.

I've got to learn a couple of those moves. I thought in my own head. Just then she seemed to disappear and reappear just as suddenly ending up behind him, she kicked him in the rear and knocked him forward. She jumped on his back and once again used her weight to knock him to the ground. I couldn't believe that this was the infamous Uchiha that had been able to murder his entire clan in a single day. How could we be beating him this badly, he seemed almost clumsy as he struggled against Inner me. And he had yet to land a single strike since the first one.

It was almost puzzling; he wasn't using any techniques in this world, so I assumed that he wasn't able to. And while we weren't using any ninjutsu either, Inner Me seemed incredibly strong as if she was using chakra induced strength and speed, which confused me.

I began to see white flashing as they fought. Every time their swords met the white light flashed as if sparks were flying. But I knew that wasn't it. The white light must mean that the Tsukiyomi was failing. He was losing his concentration and his hold on his own chakra; soon he wouldn't be able to sustain his private little world. We would be back in the real world inside my bedroom. We would both be exhausted, but he would have the upper hand with physical strength and body weight. I wanted to call out to her, but then stopped. He would hear it as well.

But perhaps she could still hear my thoughts; I closed my eyes and started thinking as hard as I could.

"We are invincible inside the technique, don't cause him to dispel it...He'll kill us back in the real world" Of course the thoughts that I received back were unclear, just a wave of emotions and what she was feeling right then. They washed over me like a waterfall falling on my head and coating my entire body. Arousal slid through my chest and loins along with the most immense sense of joy I had ever felt. I gasped as I felt the ripples of arousal increase; it was as if hundreds of hands were running gently over my body's most intimate places heightening the pleasure. I felt a stab of pain in my ribs, but it only seemed to offset the pleasure and deepen it. I couldn't help the loud groan from issuing out of my mouth as my head lolled forward my breath coming in gasps and quick pants.

Then the world melted away and I found myself collapsing to my own bedroom floor. The Uchiha collapsed on top of me as we both struggled to breathe in and out. I could barely move, it felt as though I really had just been fighting. But I knew that as soon as Itachi regained enough strength to move he would kill me. So I struggled, against his hard and heavy body, against my own exhaustion and pain to pull myself out from under the killer that lay atop me.

But of course as soon as I started to move he grabbed me once more. Wrapping his big hands around my tiny wrists and pulling me back underneath him. I squirmed away twisting against his hold, but it was no good he had a strong hold and despite his own exhaustion he held on.

"I think I finally found your weakness." He whispered in my ear. "I'll just have to try a different tact." His jaw brushed mine and I was suddenly painfully aware of just how little clothing I had on.

I don't know what would have happened if Ino hadn't come home just then and asked to come in to talk about something. The Uchiha was gone in less time than it took to blink. The only sign that he had been there was the open window through which he'd fled.


	5. Chapter 5

The Solitude of Inner Sakura

Chapter 5

Telling the Truth

My entire body shook as I sat in the chair across from the Hokage; Ino sat next to me with her arms around me. I hadn't been able to stop shaking the entire way here or through any of the explanation of why I had roused her from her bed at what had to be almost midnight.

Ino had immediately insisted we go, and that we not wait until morning. But with the retelling of how I had stood in Itachi's presence, and been pulled into the Tsukiyomi and in essence defeated it, brought fresh shivers through me. I tried not to leave out the important details, just the embarrassing ones. When I finished I cowered behind Ino, waiting for the usual reaction of anger and flying fists. But instead she just sighed, a long weary sigh. I peeked out from behind Ino and found that Tsunade had a concerned and worried expression on her face.

"Sakura, I'm not mad, upset yes, but not mad. That'll probably come later, but right now I'm just concerned that we get you the protection you need." She looked up at the door and bellowed. "Shizune! Go and rouse two Anbu squads!" The attendant immediately bowed in the doorway and ran off. "Woman doesn't trust me at all; she thinks I'm in here drinking. She's always listening at the doors now; a woman can't relax and drink in peace anymore." And with that said, she pulled open a desk drawer and pulled out a small bottle of sake and poured some for herself before sighing in pleasure. Ino and I just looked at each other; we both knew that Godaime had a bit of a problem and that Shizune while essentially her assistant was a formidable presence next to her. We were caught between a rock and a hard place. Shizune would come back and be very angry that we'd let Tsunade-sama drink when she was supposed to be cutting back.

But it wasn't like smoking, and we all knew it. Godaime was slowly drinking away half her brain, someday soon they weren't going to allow her to operate on patients anymore for fear that she would show up drunk or hung-over to the procedure. I could only imagine what would happen if she was in a bad mood, drunk, and told she wasn't going to be allowed to operate. I mean the woman has super strength and even drunk she knows how to use it.

Shizune ran back into the room and stopped dead as we looked at her guiltily and Tsunade sighed unhappily and said, "Caught once again." She sat back and allowed Shizune to take the bottle from her desk and we all watched her pour it down the side of the building. Then she left and came back shortly with a tray holding three steaming cups of tea. She allowed Ino and me to take one and then she set the last one down in front of Tsunade before stepping back and holding the tray relaxed over her abdomen and standing at the ready behind Tsunade. The tea that sloshed minutely over the rim of the cup was the only indicator that Shizune was upset.

At least she didn't seem to be blaming us for letting her drink.

"I've notified the two anbu squad leaders, they should be here shortly with their squads." Actually as she finished speaking there was a knock at the door.

"Enter!" Tsunade called out, and then took the first sip of her tea. She grimaced as the hot liquid entered her mouth and then set the cup down to look up at the eight various men and women crowded into the room. Ranging in sizes and colors, though all of them wore the familiar grey anbu uniforms with masks pushed back atop their heads. The different colors of hair and varied expressions all seemed to flow together in the sea of their gray uniforms. Most were rubbing their eyes and stretching; the leaders just looked at me and Ino with a questioning look, but said nothing. They probably wanted to know why we were here and why they had been called in, in the middle of the night.

"I have an S-Rank mission for you." Some of the guards smirked, like it wasn't a big surprise. It was no secret that Anbu got a lot of S-Rank missions. Still the leaders looked at us in confusion; usually S-Rank missions would get discussed in private.

"I need you to protect Haruno Sakura, and most likely Yamanaka Ino as well." Ino's head shot up in surprise. "Uchiha Itachi, earlier this evening snuck into their apartment trying to lay a trap for kunoichi Haruno, Haruno fought him through his doujutsu and he escaped when young Yamanaka came home and tried to check on her friend. Our information is that he will try again. NO ONE," she said and then re-emphasized these words. "Not a single record or whisper has ever been heard of ANYONE being able to fight him in his doujutsu even once, let alone twice as Haruno has described to me. She is in great danger as he has made his intentions known that he will be coming back to try again."

"Wait Hokage-sama, he wasn't after me." Ino protested.

"You were the one who interrupted him; he now knows about you, we have to assume that he would use that to his advantage if only to trade you for your friend here. Itachi is a very dangerous man, not just because of his bloodlimit but because he also uses his brains in conjunction with his abilities, that is what makes him so dangerous. So you will be guarded as well." She turned and addressed me once again.

"I am suspending missions for you for awhile and will be arranging for hospital duties instead while you recover and we wait for this to hopefully blow over. Right now these are only temporary measures. If the threat continues, we'll have to come up with a more suitable arrangement." She looked back and forth between Ino and me and then back to the group of Anbu elites, who were looking decidedly nervous. Whether it was their thoughts they might have to go up against the S-Rank criminal or just confusion on how dangerous I was to have broken out of the doujutsu I didn't know.

"You will escort Haruno and Yamanaka back to their apartment where you will check for traps and intruders. Then you will continue on watch until you are relieved, understood?"

This was followed by a unison chorus of "Hai!" and everyone stood at attention while saluting.

Months went by, and nothing happened. He never came for me again once the anbu were put in place. Naruto and Kakashi went on missions without me, while I stayed at the hospital working on a steady stream of patients. I also trained like it was going out of style and when I could persuade them, got the anbu to sometimes train with me.

Ino refused to spar with me anymore, saying that I hit too hard. Naruto would spar whenever he was at home, but mostly I had to make do with my guards or train alone.

It felt like I was growing more and more isolated. But whenever I was out on the training field I just thought of Sasuke-kun. The anbu thought it was a great idea one day to start blind folding me when we sparred and then teaming up on me, at first I thought they were a bunch of crazy sadistic bastards. But then, I found that it was a handy skill to be able to fight blind folded, especially if sometime in the future I had to fight again with one of the remaining Uchiha's.

The likeliness that Sasuke-kun would come back willingly with me before he went up against his brother was as likely as me running naked through the Akatsuki headquarters. Not real probable.

I was standing blindfolded between two anbu guards waiting for their attack. They usually tried to get me to start the fight and then I ended up in trouble as they both would slide in for the kill. So I waited, and they waited. I crouched lower in my stance and shifted my feet slightly further apart. They weren't going to move until I moved.

I back flipped on my palms and kicked out where Haruko had been two seconds before only to contact with nothing but air. I could feel her above me and jumped into the air once more slamming back my elbow into her ribs as I rocketed into the air. The soft grunt that escaped her lips, told me that I had hit my mark. She twisted away as I tried to follow up with a whirling kick similar to Lee and Gai's konoha whirlwind. I dropped back to the ground in a crouch, trying to feel any vibrations through the ground that would tell me where Kou was.

Haruko was easy to discern, crouching in a shallow pant some fifteen feet to my right shoulder, but Kou tended to be very light on his feet. He only seemed to generate the slightest of vibrations when he was right on top of me. I moved forward slightly, there! He was running straight at me. I dodged to the left putting him in between Haruko and me as I felt her get to her feet over fifteen feet away.

I felt a light brush against my right shoulder as Kou just grazed me. I slid my foot out just a tiny bit to catch his toe and pull him off balance so that when I shoved my palms into his back he tumbled forward and fell heavily to the ground just as Haruko moved in with a flying tackle. I allowed my body to fluidly fall to the ground using her own inertia as I grabbed her wrists and planted my feet in her chest, gracefully throwing her over my head some ten feet behind me. I could feel her roll safely to the ground and turn back in my direction.

Kou had made his escape while I was tossing Haruko and I could feel him on the other side of me just five feet away circling. I was back in between the pair, so I waited. Kou came in first, I crouched and feinted a kick to his middle instead spinning around I pulled myself behind Haruko and landed a solid kick to her back. She was knocked forward and into Kou who was so surprised that they both fell to the ground in a heap. I only wished I could see their faces. I laughed just picturing it as I stood there.

They both jumped to their feet simultaneously and ran at me. I planted my feet and stood firm, I turned sideways as the attack came. I grabbed Haruko's arm and pulled her forward and off balance while I jumped up and planted a two foot kick on Kou's chest to send him backward.

I landed in a backward hand spring to jump out from between them and kicked Kou's legs out from under him. Haruko came in from behind and I lunged sideways and clotheslined her across her shoulders and sent her down to the ground as well.

They both lay panting on the ground, and I finally pulled the blind fold up to look down at the two sweating and gasping ninja elites. We all just grinned at each other.

"You've improved again, Haruno-sama." Kou said formally, as he always did. I had tried to get him to call me by my regular name and without the honorific but he just smiled and said, "Yes, Haruno-sama." He and Haruko were an almost exact opposite. Maybe that was because they were twins, I had it under good authority that Kou was just a nickname and his full name was Fuyuko. Which was funny because haru meant 'spring' while fuyu meant 'winter' and ko meant 'child', I couldn't really understand why they were named for spring and winter if they were twins and born at the same time.

Haruko, upon meeting me, had immediately told me she was going to come up with a nickname for me and told me to call her Haruko with out the san. She ended up deciding to call me Sake'. She apparently found it delightfully funny to call me by the name of my Shishou's favorite drink.

"You guys are already wiped out, huh?" I said as I leaned my palms on my knees bent over and panting from the exertion as well.

"I almost had you there with my flying leap." Haruko grunted. "When did you become so fast? Next time I'll get you though." I laughed, she always said that. She kind of reminded me of Naruto at times the way she just jumped into things often flying by the seat of her pants and just reacting to the situation as it developed around her. But she was a good fighter despite that. My guard duty had become a sort of joke among the anbu, the rotating shifts often changing squads and every time they did we joked that the new anbu weren't really there for guarding me, but rather as a training mission and vacation.

That's all we did during my days off, training. It was often more fun than the days spent at the hospital where I worked myself into exhaustion trying sometimes to save lives that were nearly hopeless. It was depressing as hell to lose patients. It was really hard with the ones that you knew well or those that you had tried especially hard to save. It often made me feel like a failure to lose someone especially when I'd done everything I could. It reminded me of my time with Sasuke-kun and how he'd made it painfully clear that I would never be enough.

On days like that I just went home and curled up in bed with a cup of hot tea, my favorite stuffed animal and one of my medical magazines. For some reason they took my mind off of the patient and brought it back to the techniques, sometimes there were even new techniques published in the magazine that I could adapt for my own use.

It helped me keep from sinking into a funk and crying myself into a puddle like I had years ago when Sasuke-kun had left.

I looked down and Kou and Haruko again as we recovered our breaths. "You know, I wonder why Tsunade hasn't given up on this yet. She still has you guys posted as guards and is keeping me here in Konoha." I gasped for breath some more. "But it doesn't seem like he's going to make another move, or at least not so long as I'm in Konoha surrounded by guards anyway." They both just looked at me as they tried to sit up. Kou sat all the way up and crossed his legs so that he was in a meditating position. I raised my eyebrow at Haruko and she just shrugged and continued to lean on her elbows as she relaxed reclining on the ground.

"You are a very important person in this village Sake'. And Godaime is particularly fond of you. She just wants to be sure the threat has passed before allowing you to go back on missions again, 'specially if Itachi is just biding his time and waiting for you to come to him so to speak." Haruko said as we both watched Kou meditate to regain his "equilibrium with the environment", as he called it. It had something to do with how quietly he moved but I never could figure out exactly what he did.

"I understand that, but perhaps even just a mission where I go out as bait with a bunch of back up to see if he is watching?" She just gave me a look, as if to say "You are totally nuts." But I plunged ahead with my little monologue. "I mean, training with you guys is great, and I've learned so much during the last few months that even Naruto says he can't keep up." I paused, and sighed thinking about how things had been before. "But I miss going on real missions, and the hospital is dull and depressing a lot of the time anymore. I don't really want to be just a full time medic, I miss camping out under the stars and yelling at Naruto for packing too much ramen and forgetting to bring his bedroll or something silly like that."

"We'll talk to Godaime for you, but we can't guarantee anything." Kou said standing up and retrieving his pack and anbu blade. Was it time to switch with the other two anbu guards already? Well, back to work, I guess.


	6. Chapter 6

The Solitude of Inner Sakura

Chapter 6

Fresh Air at Last

I breathed in as I walked out of the village with Kakashi and Naruto, even with the two anbu guards at my side, it felt as if I was finally being released from prison. I loved my home, but damn it was good to get out and breathe the fresh air of the forest. I took great breaths as I walked along beside Naruto who was giving me a funny look.

"Ne, Sakura-chan." He said, speaking finally. I had wondered when he would. "Why are you suddenly deciding to go on missions again? I thought from what Tsunade Obachan said that you were going to work at the hospital for the rest of your life healing the sick and needy." I raised my eyebrows in surprise, I'd known that Naruto hadn't been told but I guess I should have paid more attention to what he was told.

"Why would you think that I never wanted to go on a mission ever again?" I rapped on the top of his head, which was considerably harder to do now that he was taller than me. "Baka, Naruto. I just needed a break after that last mission." I continued to walk ignoring Kakashi's suspicious looks. I wondered briefly what he had been told, but I shrugged it off, he'd probably gotten the same story Naruto had. But he was a smart guy, he probably suspected something.

After all it was the first time we'd ever left on a mission with two anbu escorts. Even Naruto wasn't that dumb that he wouldn't notice something was a little off, but Godaime would have told them if she wanted them to know. She was under the impression that the less people who knew the safer I'd be.

Personally I thought it was pretty obvious that something was up with the way that anbu guards followed me everywhere. A few people had asked about them and I had answered the questions about them saying that the Hokage wanted to give more protection to the valuable med-nin's. I thought it would have been better to perhaps tell Naruto and Kakashi what they were getting into what with the double threat of having Naruto and I in the same place outside Konoha at once, but she said that they would be expecting an attack from Itachi and Kisame again soon and would therefore be on guard for them without needing any extra information about what She had gone through. Not that She wanted to talk about it. It was embarrassing to even remember what had happened the second time and how out of control Inner Sakura had gotten.

Today the anbu guards that trailed us in the trees next to the road were Koneko and Tatsumaki, thought I wondered if those were only nicknames they'd been given. I had trained with them and while Koneko was a bit shy at first she wasn't Hinata shy she was just skittish at first, kind of like a kitten. Her fighting skills were surprisingly excellent. She tended to use long range genjutsu most of the time, but as a taijutsu fighter she was actually quite brilliant. She was the only one that I couldn't get a fix on when I fought with the blindfold. Her attacks always just whizzed by me and slammed me into the ground as if she had used some unseen force to run me over.

But whereas Koneko came off shy and hit hard, Tatsumaki came on strong from the get go, it was like being run over by a hundred Naruto clones if you actually let him get into his stride, and he never slowed down. Not when eating, not when walking, not when talking or fighting. Sometimes I wondered if he could match Lee's regular speed he was so fast at times that you just couldn't predict where he was going to hit. And boy did he hit hard. But I was better for it, I wasn't at their level or anything, but I'd improved and Koneko even taught me some new genjutsu techniques.

Not that I thought for a second that genjutsu would work on the Uchiha, after all, that's what the sharingan was there for, to see through genjutsu, ninjutsu, etc, etc. But it was handy, and perhaps if I used it effectively it could buy me some time in an emergency situation.

Our mission this time wad a B-rank mission to guard a transport of medical supplies and emmissaries from an important fuedal lord in the grass country through an area of rogue territory to a neighboring village badly in need of medical supplies. It didn't seem as if it would be too difficult unless we ran into a whole bunch of S-Class criminals at once, at least that's what I told myself anyway. I wished that I was able to talk to Koneko or Tatsumaki, but they were supposed to stay out of sight so it wouldn't be a good idea to call out to them for a chat. Naruto and Kakashi on the other hand seemed to be having an in-depth discussion about the best flavors of store bought ramen.

I felt like an outsider again, even on a mission. Maybe it was because of my dishonesty, or maybe it was just my imagination, but I felt kind of shunned.

We guarded the small caravan and were seen as just another pair of hired hands to the pampered emissaries that we escorted. You could tell as soon as they set eyes on us that they looked down they're noses on us.

"Hey, there pinkie!" I turned and glared angrily at the offensive person who had called out to me. "Go back to the rear of caravan with the rest of the women; you don't belong up here with the men!" It was another of those assholes. "Kick his ass!" Inner Sakura yelled her anger adding fuel to mine. I just bent down and picked up a large stone off the ground while he looked reproachfully at me due to my lack of comment or obedience. The rock was solid and larger than my fist. I concentrated a small amount of chakra into my palm and crushed the rock into nothing more than dust. I saw the man pale.

"I am a ninja." I said speaking directly to the man in a cool collected voice. "I am here to protect this caravan, but that doesn't mean I take orders from you." The man quickly turned back and snapped the reins on the backs of his two donkeys that pulled his cart, probably trying to get away from the crazy kunoichi.

"That was a bit much don't you think Sakura?" The comment came from behind me as Kakashi-senpai poofed behind me out of nowhere. "Didn't you once tell me that you were above that kind of stuff? Even Naruto doesn't curse out the nasty clients anymore."

"I don't know why Kakashi, he just really pissed me off saying that crap about women. If this is the way they treat the women around here, no wonder most of the country of field is rogue territory. They're all assholes."

"Sakura!" Kakashi exclaimed in surprise. "I've never heard you swear before." He said softly obviously surprised. I noticed his eye was wide in astonishment, something not often seen from the lazy ninja.

"I guess I've been spending too much time with foul mouthed ninja's lately." I laughed softly, no real humor in the situation.

"About that Sakura, I know that the anbu aren't just here as back-up. I still don't fully understand why they're here or why you suddenly are rejoining missions after your long "vacation" but if there's something I should know..." He let his question trail off.

"Kakashi, I want to tell you, but Godaime believes that you both are better off in the dark. She believes that everyone is safer that way." I looked up at him trying to tell him with my eyes just how sorry I was that I couldn't tell him.

"Alright then." He looked away and walked further ahead to where I could see Naruto yelling at the same old man that I had practically threatened. I wondered if the jackass was just pushing everyone's buttons today.

We had been walking along peacefully, when suddenly I felt something. I glanced over my left shoulder into the high grasses; I could feel someone out there hiding in the high grass. I could sense the chakra levels rising as they started some jutsu; I looked around for my teammates to find Kakashi looking out at the field as well Naruto at his side with a questioning look on his face.

Kakashi and I had both sensed the ninja, a strong one by the chakra seeping out of the field of waving grass. Was it Itachi and Kisame? My heart sped up a few notches in fear at the thought.

I didn't want to go into the high grass towards some unknown enemy, so I pulled out two kunai and got in a defensive stance. The chakra grew until it felt suffocating, there! I found the chakra signature where the source was or was this genjutsu, of course, it was a distraction.

"Kai!" I yelled to release the jutsu, I found a dozen armed men attacking the caravan. Kakashi was releasing the jutsu on Naruto so I whirled at the nearest man. He just dropped what he held from the wagon next to me and ran away with a scream. Several men attacked at that point, but they were only armed thugs so far as I could see.

Three men charged me and I allowed them to come in close before I jumped into the air and landed behind two of them knocking them off their feet. Quickly I jabbed two of my fingers into a pressure point that I had learned as a medic and turned to the third that had pulled a short sword from his back and was swinging it wildly. I stepped out of his range and then when he swung again I stepped in and grabbed his sword arm and knocked him out using the pressure point as well. He dropped to the ground next to his two buddies. I could still sense the chakra source out there but I didn't have the time to deal with it as several more thugs charged head on towards me yelling at the top of their lungs.

"Fools." I thought, I used the replacement technique to lure them into a trap and as they all argued and wrestled trying to free themselves of the net I took the time to cast my own genjutsu on them. They instantly went to sleep.

Finally I turned my attention to the chakra signature, making sure to leave a clone guarding the bandits. If I was good enough, the genjutsu user wouldn't even know that the clone was fake until I was upon him. I crept through the tall grass stealthily making my way toward the chakra bursts. By now I knew it wasn't Itachi, he would never work with common thugs. Only first class assholes all the way for a ninja like him. He was a criminal, but he was a criminal with standards. Why be an ordinary criminal when he could be utterly evil and legendary in his infamy?

I crouched low and paused for a moment inching aside the weeds in front of me. The man sat there cross legged in the weeds, he looked like an ordinary farmer except for the seal he was using to perform his jutsu. I lunged forward and flip-kicked him into the ground. Too easy, I thought to myself as he lay there stunned and unable to move as I tied him up. I made sure to tie them so he couldn't form any seals when no one was looking.

All in all, the fight was rather disappointing I thought to myself as I threw the grumbling and cursing man over my shoulder and carried him back to the road.

I gave Kakashi the thumbs up from my end as he knocked one of the last bad guys over the head. I dumped the jutsu user in the back of a wagon and grabbed a couple more and threw them in the back of a different wagon. I didn't want the jutsu user to be anywhere near the guys I'd used jutsu on, just in case he could break it even without seals. Though I doubted he was a chakra master, it was better to be safe than sorry. It was the best motto I'd ever come up with.

I rolled my shoulders and stretched yawning as I walked to my bedroll beside the campfire. The rest of the mission had been simple, ignore the asshole driving the cart in the middle and keep an eye out for more ninja's. But to my disappointment there were no more ninja attacks. "I trained for months and all we get is a no threat bunch of bandits?" I asked myself, this was supposed to be a decently difficult mission, but the last time I would have had difficulty with a mission like this I was a beginning genin.

I pulled off my gloves and medic skirt as I knelt on my bedroll. The elbow pads and my shin protector ninja sandals came next. I sat there and wiggled my toes a bit. I'd painted my toenails the other day to match my shirt and now the paint was chipped at the corners from walking in open toe sandals everywhere. So I pulled out the bottle of polish and touched up the edges while Kakashi sat reading his book and Naruto stuffed his face with the remnants of dinner. He would eat the rest and then be hungry for ramen in an hour. I waved my feet in the air to help dry the polish and then lay back against my pack using it as a pillow.

Perhaps I should try to become a jounin? I thought about it for a second, and wondered if I was strong enough. I had no idea what the test entailed. Perhaps I would have to go back into the forest of death by myself while a bunch of other chuunins fought for a scroll like we'd done in the chuunin exam, or perhaps it would be like the preliminary matches that occurred just after the second part of the chuunin exam. And I wouldn't be able to take the exam with Naruto either, he still hadn't passed the chuunin exam. Of course he needed to wait for it to come back around and then find two other teammates to form a three man squad in order to even begin trying. It had been simple after Naruto left. I had simply joined in with Ino and Chouji's team.

Ino and I passed that time but it took Chouji another testing before he'd managed to become acknowledged as chuunin. Which worked out well, since it took a couple tries for Tenten and Hinata as well. We teased him endlessly that he was on a three woman team.

He just laughed and said that was alright, he just had two fine ladies to make him dinner, like the last time. Hinata would just blush and Tenten knocked him over the head like I'd often done to Naruto when he said something stupid.

And despite the fact that I didn't much care about my rank I wanted to continually improve myself so that I could one day get Sasuke-kun back. Hadn't I promised him I would help him with his revenge if only he'd let me? He would never let me if I was so weak that I would slow him down. And becoming a jounin would prove that I'd become stronger, if only to myself.

But I'd show him though, I would become even stronger. And when next I saw him I would be stronger than even him!

Quietly I lay there smiling, breathing in the evening air tinged with the smell of our campfire until I fell asleep.


	7. Chapter 7

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Chapter 7

The Challenge

I had finally received permission from Tsunade to take the test and see if I had the ability to become a jounin. Naruto was so jealous that he was nearly bouncing off the walls. He'd practically imploded when I told him I couldn't train with him today because of what I was doing.

Of course, being Naruto he was very supportive and said that he would be there to cheer me on. Unfortunately, spectators were not allowed during the examinations. I was surprised to find the Jounin exam to be very similar to the chuunin exam. The first part was a paper exam. And while everyone else was trying to stealthily cheat off others, I spent the entire time trying to guard myself against attacks like Ino's mind transfer jutsu. I wasn't giving out any of my answers to the unworthy.

It was simple and straight forward, no terrifying presence from Morino Ibiki but instead Shizune stood there the entire time (however did Tsunade-sama get her to agree to spend so much time away from her?) just watching us with eagle eyes. At one point during the exam she threw one of her poisonous needles at a student. The needle made a funny "sproing" sound as it imbedded through the exam paper and went deep into the desk beneath, barely missing the student's fingers. That student fainted and was carried out by several of the jounin lining the walls.

I had it easy, I had been trained by Godaime herself, and I was mentally capable much more so than a lot of people I knew. In fact Ino had always attributed that to my rather large forehead (which I had finally grown into and which wasn't really large anymore at all). When Shizune finally told everyone the time was up, several people had to leave because they hadn't finished the test. The papers that were completed were passed forward and we were informed that they would be graded before we were allowed to go on to the second part of the exam.

"Until then," She said. "You will be sequestered in a dormitory in the basement of the Hokage main building." We would then be notified as to whether or not we would be continuing the exam or not.

So we all lined up as if we were orderly exiting the building for a fire drill. We found the dormitory to be a really large room filled with bunk beds and a few tables. Most of us paced the room, though a few just lay down and went to sleep. I was a pacer, I watched a group of men only a little older than me sit down at a table and begin playing cards while they waited.

Neji had already taken this test, "maybe I should have asked him for information before I started this exam?" I thought quietly as I flopped down on a free bed next to me and stared up at the bunk above me. I wasn't worried that I had failed, in fact I was almost 100 sure that I had passed. I just didn't know what would be coming next, it wasn't as if we had teammates here and would have to work as a team to complete a mission, what could they have us do that would only require individual strength...?

"There's no sense in wearing yourself out before you even know what's coming next." Inner Sakura said popping up at my thoughts while I lay there. "Why don't you just take a nice long nap?"

But I just continued to lay there and play with my hair. It had grown in the last few years and once again reached between my shoulder blades. Most of the time I pulled it back and braided it to keep it out of the way and from getting into another situation like I had in my first chuunin exam. But today I had left it down, loose about my shoulders. Not because I wanted to play with it but because it provided a certain amount of cover while I was taking the test. I didn't want any extra competition if I could prevent it.

"Ugh, how long are we gonna have to wait?" An impatient voice said from the bunk next to me. I turned my head to look at the other woman. She was a cute little redhead, her hair came to her chin and several strands lay across her heart shaped face. She had green eyes that were a dark forest green whereas my green eyes were more of a lighter emerald color. She rested with one hand behind her head and her leg hanging off the bed; it reminded me of Naruto immediately. I smiled at her, and spoke even though her comment was rhetorical.

"As long as torturing us is fun I think. I wouldn't put it past Tsunade-sama to make a joke out of watching us worry ourselves to death in here." The girl turned to look at me then and grinned rolling onto her side. I followed suit so that we were facing each other. I noticed her clothing for the first time to see that she wore a small sports bra and a pair of shorts under a tight knit mesh dress. A green sash wrapped around her waist perfectly matching her eyes. Briefly I wondered if her bra was chakra infused like mine, but decided it was none of my business.

"What's your name?" I said finally speaking to start the conversation. "Better than sitting here doing nothing that's for sure." Inner Sakura said stifling a yawn.

"Yasueda, Yuri. And you?" She lifted her head up to rest on her hand, her hair still lay in her face and I wondered how she wasn't bugged by all the hair in her eyes.

"Haruno, Sakura." My eyes sparkled with amusement, Yuri meant lily while Sakura meant cherry blossom. "Two flowers, huh?" We chuckled softly. Yuri seemed to be a few years older than I was, perhaps she'd taken the exam before and I could ask her about it.

"So what do you know about the jounin exam?" I asked. "Jeez, that sounded rude didn't it?" I said letting my hair hide my face in embarrassment as I felt my cheeks grow warm.

But Yuri just laughed into her hand. "Naw, that's alright." She said in a boisterous Naruto type voice. "I do look the type to have taken the exam before don't I?" She widened her eyes and smiled a feigned innocent expression, which I didn't buy for a second.

"Yeah, last year I took the exam and made it to the second part but then my dummy got its head chopped off I was shown the door."

"Dummy?" I asked confused.

"Yeah," She said shifting positions so that she lay on her stomach facing me with her legs hanging off the other side of the bed. I could see them alternately kicking in the air. "They give you a large dummy like sack filled with sand. The dummy is supposed to represent the client you need to protect." She blew air up into her bangs blowing them about her face but not out of it. "Then there's some sorta technique to make the dummy weightless, and we had to carry it through the forest of death without getting the dummy too damaged. Like, if the head gets chopped off or it gets a kunai through the heart, or just plain loses too much sand then you're disqualified. Because then your imaginary client is dead and you fail because you can't protect a client by yourself."

"So we have to work alone, as a rule?" I asked, it seemed like a pretty straightforward test once again.

"Naw, it ain't like if you come across another person in there that you can't help 'em out it just means that you put your client in danger along with theirs. Just like in a real life situation, if you came across a group of friendly ninja being attacked you'd help wouldn't you?" I nodded my head vaguely in agreement still thinking that I would have to determine the situation ahead of time and whether or not I could help them. If it was a situation where Uchiha Itachi showed up, I would probably still run in the other direction. That guy was so good it was terrifying to think about. It wouldn't do to jump in and get myself killed, along with whoever he was already attacking.

"Stop worrying so much about that dummy; it's been nearly a year since you last saw him. If he were going to come after you again, wouldn't he have done it by now?" Inner Sakura said, through the haze of my thoughts. "Of course, if you wanna let me outta here when next you see him I'll be glad to fight him for you." I stopped listening and looked at Yuri again, who just sat there watching me.

"I would do my best to save them, but as a ninja I would have to also weight the risks." I held up one finger. "One example, I'm traveling alone with a client I'm supposed to protect and a group of genin's is under attack by Uchiha Itachi and Hoshigake Kisame. Do I attack and hope that the genin's can make it to safety or do I run to the nearest village and gather reinforcements hoping to make it back to them in time?"

"Yeah, but that's different, and completely unlikely." Yuri waved her hand to dismiss it. "Besides, I don't believe he could really be as tough as everyone makes him out to be." She waved her hands again as she spoke.

"You're wrong about that." I said, and lay back on my bed and stared at the bunk above me remembering the last time I'd come up against the powerful Uchiha.

"You mean you actually fought with THE Uchiha Itachi?" I could hear the awe in her voice and her jaw practically hitting the floor.

"I guess it's something to be proud of as a chuunin, isn't it? I fought with Uchiha Itachi and lived if only by sheer dumb luck." Even with being immune to the Tsukiyomi if Naruto hadn't arrived when he did I would have been blotted out of existence.

"Okay, I guess you're worthy." She said and I looked at her in surprise.

"Worthy of what?" I asked blinking at her.

"Worthy of a little challenge. If the exam is the same, I challenge you to a contest. I bet I can reach the tower before you can." She looked so smug that I couldn't resist.

"You're on!" I clasped her hand in mine to seal the deal. "But don't think you're gonna win this contest!" I said grinning. She grinned too and we both flopped back onto our bunks to make plans for our own victory.


	8. Chapter 8

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Chapter 8

I Want to Break You

When Shizune finally came back it was hours later and had gotten dark outside already.

"When I announce your name, you will please leave and report to gate one of the Forest of Death." We all stood silent, just waiting, hoping our name would be called. She started in alphabetical order and when she got to my name I smirked at Yuri and walked out the door. She would have to wait for her name to be called till nearly the end. Before I made my way to the specified location I checked my equipment and made sure that I had a full supply of kunai, shuriken and other essentials that I would need in order to spend several days in the confines of that exotic rainforest. Then I stopped at a dango shop and got an order to go. I was starving after spending several hours in that room with nothing to eat or drink. I ate on the way, and Yuri caught up with me halfway there.

"Hey, no fair!" She whined. "I'm hungry too and we have to report right away." I just shoved one of the sticks of dango at her and kept eating. It made me glad that my name came towards the beginning sometimes. This time it meant that I could go into the forest without being hungry ahead of time.

We got there just in time to grab a consent form each and sign them before they started handing out the dummies. True to what Yuri had said, the dummies were sand filled bags out of a heavy duty material so that they wouldn't leak accidentally. And while such a doll should have been very heavy it weighed nothing at all. It was rather like lifting a piece of paper off the floor. Which made sense to me, normally one wouldn't have to carry their client unless in an emergency situation. We were assigned gates to enter through just as in the chuunin exam, but that wasn't the only part of the explanation.

Shizune stood in front of us once more in her Jounin uniform.

"You will be required to carry your dummies to the tower at the center of the forest of death. I won't waste your time talking about it; all of you have been through it before as chuunins. There will be a few differences though."

She paused to look around at the crowd a moment pausing only briefly on my face and then continuing on. "In the forest your dummy is the client. You are to protect your dummy from harm on your way to the tower. If your dummy becomes too injured you will fail automatically. Examples are injuries to the head, heart, and extensive loss of sand. Any damage done to your dummy ultimately will lose you points, but if we determine that the client is dead, then you will fail. Once again, there is a time limit to reach the tower. You are all chuunins now so you will only have a total of forty-eight hours to make it to the tower. Exactly two days."

She held up two fingers as if that would help, I guess sometimes she forgot she wasn't talking to children or a drunken Hokage. "There will also be other challenges once you are inside. You are forbidden to fight with your fellow students. This is not a test of how well you can kill or how powerful you are. This is a test for how well you think on your feet while protecting yourself and your client." She stopped and glared at several of the students. She was completely ignoring me for that comment which made me feel better about the test.

"However, you will likely fall under the attack of several hunter-nins who will seek to do you and your client harm. So be on your guard. We strongly discourage you from working together with another candidate; you may help one another if an emergency situation arises. But for the most part we want you to work on your own. So for the most part you should be working separately."

A lot of the candidates were surprised, even I was. We were all trained to work on three man teams and think of ourselves as three people in one, what happened to one happened to all so to speak. But it did make sense this way as Jounin tended to be leaders and were sometimes assigned missions where they walked into situations alone with no one to guard their back. So I just nodded my head and thought, "Let's get on with the test."

Shizune glanced over the crowd one more time pausing on me before saying, "Gather at your respective gates, the test will begin in less than fifteen minutes."

The chain slid from the door at one minute before the hour. I picked up the dummy and tied its arms and legs around me so that I could keep my arms free and move faster. I was more concerned with getting to the tower the fastest than I was about the Oinin guards I might have to face. I didn't know who they had out there, but I'd fought pairs of anbu blindfolded so this shouldn't be too tough. The clock clicked into place, nine p.m. The gates opened and I ran through heading straight into the woods.

I stood in the shadow of the large oak, waiting for the anbu hunter-nins to move on. It was early morning of the first day and I had already come under attack twice. I was getting better about sensing them before they were upon me though, so far I'd evaded this squad three times. But they were getting closer every time and I was still trying to move fast. I was headed straight for the tower and maybe that was why I was running into so much opposition. But if that were the situation, that meant that on every direct route to the tower was at least one anbu squad.

I held my breath as one of the masked nins paused near where I was hiding. The ninja paused and glanced around through the holes of her anbu mask and I clamped down even more trying to keep chakra from escaping and announcing my presence.

In the first surprise attack my dummy had gotten a tare on its leg, I repaired it with some chakra thread in my med kit so that the sand stopped leaking, but even one injury was too many. It was especially frustrating since I wasn't even halfway to the tower, yet. I breathed out a sigh of relief as the anbu moved on again in the direction of the tower. Now I was behind them, I could probably counterattack, but that wasn't really the objective here. The objective was defense, not offense. So I headed off too, but in a slightly different direction. I wanted to move parallel to them far enough away so that they wouldn't notice me.

Light was starting to shine through the trees more as the sun rose in the sky. I began to look for a place to bed down, I was tired and I wanted to be out of sight for the lightest part of the day. I scavenged from the trees and bushes to make a covering for myself while I slept. When I was done it looked like just another bush. But I set up some traps around it in case someone saw through my handiwork.

I slept there, hidden for several hours in my clever little bush. No one came to disturb my traps. When I woke it was three p.m. The shadows would just start getting longer during this part of the day and would make it a little easier for me to hide if I needed to. I pulled the dummy out of our hiding place and tied it back around my waist before going and looking for some food. I hadn't packed anything food wise except for soldier pills, and I was saving them in case of an emergency.

But I found some wild apples and ate enough of them to satisfy my current hunger; I picked some extras for later and stuffed them in my nin-do bag. Then I took off. I was headed for the river today that would lead directly to the tower. I figured I could walk on the bottom using a constant Chakra field jutsu. That would allow me and the dummy to stay dry and able to breathe while staying hidden at the same time so that I could move faster.

I pulled my chakra into a large bubble surrounding the upper half of my body to include me and the dummy inside its perimeter. Then I slid silently into the water. The river wasn't really very deep which was good because as soon as I got in the pressure surrounding me was enormous, it got incredibly tough to hold the chakra field around myself and the current was pretty strong in some places threatening to mow me down and take me along with it. But I was still moving faster than I would if I were getting challenged every few feet.

After a while though I had to get out of the water, it was starting to freeze my toes and I didn't know what would happen to the dummy if I suddenly lost control of the jutsu and it became soaked.

I pulled myself up out of the water, it was still early evening and it looked like I was still pretty far from the tower. "Well at least I'm heading the right way and know that I'm not under the influence of any genjutsu at least." I thought to myself. I couldn't sense any anbu in the vicinity so I trudged up the river bed and into the large and widespread tree's pulling out my compass. I headed north to the tower and froze.

I dropped the dummy and pinched my arm. It hurt so this wasn't a dream; I bit my lip until it bled proving that there was no genjutsu.

I was in deep shit, Uchiha Itachi stood in front of me, and he wasn't a fake.

I immediately started inching backwards away from him. "Dammit!" I cursed in my head. "Why didn't I sense him when I was trying to sense the anbu?" But then I heard Inner Sakura over the whirling roar of my own thoughts.

"Stand your ground and fight! Didn't you tell Sasuke-kun you would help him with his revenge? Fear is a weakness, get rid of it!" And just like that, the fear was gone. Replaced by her, or rather, our anger and determination. I pulled out two kunai and charged him. I came up short and changed directions to whirl around behind him. But I sensed something strange and leapt back at the last moment. The clone exploded, barely missing me.

"You've gotten better, kunoichi." His voice hissed in my ear just as his heavy body fell against my back pushing me toward the ground. I twisted and slashed out with my right arm while jabbing with the left.

He avoided the slashing and the jab only grazed him but it came back with blood on it which satisfied me for the moment. But then he was gone. I tried to sense him, but it was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. I turned around, again and again. "He's here somewhere, don't let your guard down!" Inner Sakura yelled.

I glanced around and pulled my dummy up throwing it over my shoulder and speeding off through the trees trying to sense everything around me.

I didn't even know what hit me when I suddenly fell backwards off the tree I had just jumped to. I lay dazed on the grass for a few seconds just trying to breathe before looking up at the Uchiha that stood calmly at my feet.

"Sloppy Kunoichi, very sloppy." He smirked, and I threw myself at him trying to body check him, only he side stepped and when I moved low trying to sweep his feet out from under him he simply jumped and flipped onto the side of a nearby tree. I summoned chakra and slammed my fist into the tree splitting it down the middle so he had to jump off to go to another tree.

I spun in the air and tried punching him mid air with a right hook, he grabbed the hand trying to throw me off but as he did I came around with my left leg and he couldn't dodge the kick in mid-air as I landed the hit I heard an almost sickening pop where his shoulder dislocated.

He didn't even flinch, he just kicked me away and I slammed into a tree fifteen feet away. I once again had the breath knocked out of me. I couldn't move my right arm at the elbow and saw that it was broken again. Itachi was busy trying ramming his shoulder back into place.

I formed the seals and set the bone healing it as much as I could before he came at me again. But I didn't run at him this time, I instead formed shadow clones and they started jumping at him trying to get a hold of him and hold him down.

He dispelled one of the clones and was blown backward into some bushes by the explosion. I used this time to grab my dummy that lay forgotten on the ground and ran off leaving him to deal with my modified exploding clones. He would have to deal with them all from a distance or risk getting himself killed again. This would at least give me a chance to try to get to safety or find an anbu squad.

"What are you talking about?" Came the voice of Inner Sakura. "If you tell them about Itachi's attack they won't let you finish the exam!"

"Then what the hell am I supposed to do?" I yelled back at her within my own head.

"Use the blindfold technique; don't just try to sense his chakra. You'll hear him if you're listening well enough! Don't forget, this is an exam where you're supposed to be thinking on your feet! Just think of it as extra training."

So I dropped to the ground, still running I listened. I listened so hard that I ignored nearly everything else.

"There!" Inner Sakura shouted, and we dodged his fist as it seemed to come out of nowhere. I dropped the dummy; he wasn't interested in that anyway.

For a second his eyes widened as he sailed over me surprised as I dropped onto my back and planted two swift flutter kicks into his right side. He sailed up into the air unprepared and hit a large overhanging branch hard enough to splinter the wood and send a shower of bark down around me. I grabbed the dummy and rolled out of the way tossing the dummy away from me as I rolled to my feet and ran at the tree just as he started to fall down ward.

But as I jumped onto the tree trunk to start the kick I felt something was wrong. I pulled back at the last second instead pushing off the tree hoping to send myself far enough away from the exploding clone in time. The blast echoed through the trees and I flipped twice trying to avoid being smashed into a tree like I had earlier, my arm was only barely healed and would only re-break if I was hit sharply again.

I landed safely on the grass and looked around for the enemy. I couldn't sense any chakra, I couldn't hear anything. So once again I ran off. I glanced up to see the tower looming less than a mile ahead of me. If only I could get there, I was sure that he wouldn't pursue.

"Pay attention, dammit!" Inner Sakura screamed at me, but it was too late. I was just suddenly falling forward. He had slid in from the side and knocked my feet out from under me, and then we were rolling in the grass.

I lay still, exhausted on the ground. We both were breathing heavily and I grinned maliciously up at him, at least he had to work a bit harder for it this time. It really freaked me out when he smirked back at me.

"You really have improved since last time, by a lot actually." He said after he caught his breath, he even sounded a little impressed. But I wasn't sure. "And you even improved my exploding clone jutsu. I'll have to adopt that one." He whispered the last bit in my ear as if in forewarning. Then he lightly bit my ear causing me to squeak in surprise.

"You're so feisty. It makes this even more fun." He whispered again then met my eyes. He'd distracted me and I'd momentarily forgotten about his eyes, the eyes now sucking me down into the red and black of his mangekyou. I faintly heard the words. "I want to break you." Before the forest started to disappear around me.


	9. Chapter 9

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Chapter 9

Yuri to the Rescue

"Get off of her!" The shout pulled us both out of the Tsukiyomi and Itachi collapsed on top of me rolling to the side and pulling me up in front of him using me as a shield.

I felt a kunai slice into my arm and heard several more land where we had just been laying.

"I'll see you again." He whispered and then I suddenly dropped onto the grass as he disappeared right out from under me.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" I yelled punching the ground with each word out of my mouth.

"Uh...Are you alright, Sakura?" She was approaching slowly and warily as I sat up and tried to calm down.

"Thank you, Yuri." I said when I had regained enough control of myself to be properly grateful. I just sat there looking up at her for a moment.

"Was that an Akatsuki cloak that guy had on?" She asked still looking around making sure that he was really gone and wouldn't be sneaking up on us to attack again. "Who was that guy, don't they usually work in pairs?"

"I'll tell you, but first you have to promise that you won't tell anyone, at least not yet." I said.

"If it's important to you and won't hurt anyone." She replied looking at me.

"The only one it's going to hurt is me, most likely." I said standing and forming more seals to finish healing my arm from the break earlier and the new wound I'd gotten from Yuri's kunai.

"Then okay." She just waited for me to speak after that.

"That was Uchiha Itachi." I said slow and deliberately.

"Wait. You're telling me that the man who just ran outta here like a scared rabbit...was Uchiha Itachi?" She held her arms akimbo in disbelief.

"Yes, and if you think that he was scared, you're wrong. He just didn't want to deal with you right now." I finished healing my arms and went to pick up my dummy. "He left because he picks his battles very carefully. He'll find me again some other time when I'm vulnerable and then he'll make his move. If he'd stuck around and injured you or killed you it would make it that much harder for him to come after me again later on. And I really don't want to spend another six months with squads of anbu following me around konoha and relegated to hospital duty only. I like going out on mission's thankyouverymuch." I turned back to look at her again. She looked aghast at what I was saying. "Besides I have to get stronger, so that I can help Sasuke-kun kill him and I can't do that if I turn tail and run every time he comes around. If you wanna stick with me the last mile to the tower I think that would be fine. I think this qualifies as an emergency condition of sorts."

She was still just looking at me with her mouth hanging open.

"It's really not as bad as it sounds Yuri." I said trying to calm her down.

"Then tell me how I'm supposed to react to news like this. I mean I only just met you today, but I thought you were intelligent!"

"I'm not stupid!" I snapped. "But this is the way it needs to be. If you don't want to go with me, I'll just leave now." I turned to go, but she quickly ran after me grabbing up her dummy on the way.

The rest of the way to the tower was uneventful; we evaded the anbu and were in the tower by seven p.m.

"I guess this means that we tie on the challenge." She huffed as we met up later. We were still in the tower waiting for the remainder of the chuunins who would show up within the time limit. So far it was us and a small handful of others, but we still had about a day left for them to get here.

We gathered in a cozy room that one of the jounins told us was called Tower commons. It was filled with couches to relax on and a table against the far wall held an assortment of dishes for us to eat while we sat around talking. Some just were dozing lazily in the chairs, exhausted from the trial of getting there so quickly, besides the Jounin who greeted us asked us to not wander around the tower. What else was there to do other than eat, sleep, and talk?

"Yuri and I found ourselves talking about our respective training until we both fell asleep on the couch.

We were shaken awake sometime later and told to gather in the Exam Arena. I rubbed sleep from my eyes as I followed along behind the group until we reached the arena where we had fought the preliminary matches during my first chuunin exam.

Everything looked exactly the same, the large sculpture of a pair of hands forming a seal, the balconies for those who had waited patiently or not so patiently for their turn to fight.

I wondered if we would be fighting each other now, or some sort of modification of the third exam like the second test had been a modified version of the chuunin second exam. Or would it be something else entirely?

The Hokage was standing just in front of the large hands in full Hokage regalia. I could tell she was slightly hung over by the way her eyebrows pinched together signaling a headache. We stood in a single file line just in front of the raised area where some other Jounins stood just behind Godaime. I noticed Gai, Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai, Morino Ibiki stood there, as did Matarashi Anko and several others that I couldn't put a name to. It seemed as if there were exactly the same numbers of jounins as there were candidates left. I groaned as I realized it was another version of the preliminaries hopefully not another preliminary but the actual third and final exam.

The man whose name I didn't remember from my first chuunin exam stood just behind the Hokage with a senbon in his mouth that he was chewing like it was some weird metal toothpick. He was probably here to referee the matches again. "Doesn't he ever take that thing out of his mouth?" I wondered out loud to Yuri, who stifled a laugh behind her hand. Then Tsunade began to speak and we all quieted down.

"This is the final trial to becoming a Jounin. This next exam will test your field skills as a ninja in taijutsu, ninjutsu, and genjutsu. Killing will NOT be permitted." She said in an authoritative voice. "Your names will appear randomly on the electronic sorter with the name of the jounin and the challenger. Whether you win the match or lose, is not the point. We will be watching HOW you fight, and we will be judging you based on how well you use your brain, your surroundings and the way you use your techniques not on whether you win or lose. This is a show of your offensive skills."

Toothpick guy stepped forward then and started talking. "My name is Shiranui Genma during the matches I will be refereeing. If I determine that the match is over you will not argue with me. If I determine intent to kill I will stop the match and you may be disqualified. I will announce the beginning of each match, so if everyone would go up to the balconies we will begin." Every word out of his mouth was slightly mumbled due to the toothpick he held between his teeth but for some reason he was clear and audible from even five feet away. We all turned and began walking toward the stairs some taking the left some the right. It didn't really matter I just walked up the right one because it was closer. "Please don't pair me with Kakashi, please not Kakashi, anybody but Kakashi." I repeated over and over.

"Who's Kakashi?" Yuri whispered to me, and I jumped. She laughed, I had forgotten about her.

"Kakashi was my teams Jounin when we were genin; he's the copy ninja Hatake, Kakashi. He has a sharingan in his left eye." I pointed him out with his tilted forehead protector. "He's very fast, and very tricky, not to mention a huge pervert. He's always reading Make out Paradise whenever he can, it's his favorite pastime."

"Oh, so you don't want him because he's really tough?" She asked raising her eyebrows.

"No! I don't wanna fight him because I might have to hurt him or do something perverted to win, ugh! He's like a big brother, and I don't think he would be able to go serious against me which would make the other jounins watching the match probably think less of me if I used some perverted jutsu to defeat him."

"So who would you rather fight then?" She asked looking down at the other Jounins.

"Hmm, probably Kurenai, she uses genjutsu mostly so that should be easier to counter than Asuma's crazy knuckle knives. I don't know most of the rest, Gai that weird looking man in the green jumpsuit uses mostly taijutsu, I've never seen Ibiki or Anko fight so I'd have to say I'd rather have one of the ones that I know something about. Kurenai would probably be the easiest one for me to defeat." I stopped talking as the digital screen started flashing going between letters mixing up the names. We all stood apprehensive waiting for it to announce the first match.

Yasueda, Yuri-versus-Hatake, Kakashi

Yuri groaned to my left as I let out a sigh of relief. "I'm sure you'll do fine." I said as she glanced over at him and then at me.

"You sure he's really that tough?" She asked.

"Don't let that aloof appearance fool you." I warned.

"Well, at least I'm forewarned." She said and then jumped over the rail.

"Fighters to the center." Genma ordered. "Are you ready?" He asked, though I don't know what he would have done if someone said no.

"Hai, Hai." They both said and then stepped back from each other.

"Begin." Genma said and jumped back out of the line of fire. Immediately Yuri jumped into the air sending a volley of shuriken toward Kakashi that he dodged easily, almost lazily.

The fight continued much that way, reminding me of the first time we fought Kakashi on the training ground and Naruto tried to fight him head on, not being able to land a single punch. She tried again and again to fight but he just brushed aside her taijutsu and her kunai and shuriken as if he were brushing a stray hair out of his face. I saw her look up at me then and smirk.

All of a sudden there was a poof like for Naruto's sexy jutsu but it was instead a transformation into my body and I was holding a little red book. "Kakashi-sensei, I've got the newest Icha Icha book." I don't know whether or not he would have fallen for that trick but it was apparently just a distraction as Yuri appeared suddenly behind him and punched him in the back of the head as he looked at her henge-clone. I watched in amazement as he just fell to the floor. I wondered if he'd just gotten lazy or if she had really knocked him out.

I laughed and she ran back up the stairs as Kakashi was revived by the present medic and took his place back with the other jounins.

Yuri fairly bounced back up the stairs and we laughed through the next several matches. Then the screen read Haruno, Sakura-versus-Maito, Gai

I rolled my eyes and jumped over the banister to land in front of Gai. Who in turn stood in his nice guy pose shining teeth and all spouting off his ideology on the spirit of youth. I smirked and got an idea.

"Begin." Genma said and jumping back. I immediately transformed into his favorite pupil Rock, Lee.

"Gai-sensei!" I yelled as I charged at him. "Let us fight with the spirit of youth!" Gai charged in with a wide grin and tears in his eyes. I quickly formed the seals for a variation of the exploding clones; these clones would jump on the target and start sucking out their chakra. They would however generate only a small explosion when they were forcefully dispelled, nothing dangerous enough to kill him. He couldn't tell which was the real me and used the konoha whirlwind on the first clone, it dispelled with an explosion that sent him flying back into a wall and the rest of the clones immediately latched on and started sucking out his chakra. I approached in the standard taijutsu style that I'd seen Lee use so many times.

Gai was just standing back up not really sure what to do with the rest of the clones when I hit him with a variation of the konoha whirlwind. He landed painfully on his side as he dispelled two more of the clones and was blown fifteen feet into the air where he came into contact with the underside of the balcony and released the other two clones and was shot back down to the ground.

He lay in a heap for a few seconds before struggling to his feet. His shiny jumpsuit was dirty and ripped, but he just stood up and gave me the nice guy pose again. "Come my young friend; let us fight with the spirit of youth!" He charged toward me and I feinted high and went low surprising him with a blow to his ribs. I jumped up as he turned toward me and planted two kicks into his chest knocking him backwards a bit and then going low again to knock his feet out from under him. Which he dodged, but then I flipped up and over his head concentrating chakra into my feet as they slammed into the floor. I immediately jumped up again to avoid another blow and began forming more seals. I formed a bunch of normal replications so that he wouldn't be able to tell which one was his real opponent until it was too late. I landed next to several of my afterimages and we all stood still while Gai tried to pinpoint who was his real opponent among the replications. While his back was turned I used a jutsu that I'd learned from Koneko. Gai froze as the Nightmare Genjutsu hit him.

Gai just stood there looking horrified for a moment and then he started crying, This wasn't his usual youthful and happy crying. It was almost heartbreaking when he called out for Lee and then collapsed to his knees. I let the replications standing around him dispel as he continued to cry on the floor. I felt really bad but I wanted to win and prove that I was strong enough to be a jounin. The next second I found guy pulling a kunai out of his pouch and shouting, "I will join you Lee!" Readying the Kunai and plunging it toward his heart.

My hand shot forward just in time to feel the kunai pierce my palm and plunge through to the other side. Quickly before he could try again I dispelled the technique.

Genma stepped forward and declared that I was the match winner, but Gai would not get up. Gai looked up at the room as if he'd never seen it before his slightly tear stained face looking confused. His eyes fell to me.

"Lee?" He asked hesitantly. I was about to shake my head, I had completely forgotten that I was still disguised as his favorite pupil. But he grabbed me in a bear hug and started to cry again. I just felt even worse so I patted his back and tried to calm him down. I looked up at Kakashi and the other jounins to find them giving me blank stares or looks of open disgust, though some did look impressed.

I just looked at Kakashi sensei; he looked back as unreadable as ever. It was one of those times when I sincerely wished that I could see the expression on his face.

Finally one of the medic's had to come and collect Gai, they wanted to look at my hand but I formed the seals and healed the wound myself as I ran off dispelling the Henge of Lee. The entire arena was silent through the entire affair. I forced myself to walk back up and take my place next to Yuri again. She just looked at me for a while before speaking. "You are truly hardcore and crazy, Sakura." I don't know whether that was meant to be a compliment, derision or both. But I just ignored it.


	10. Chapter 10

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Chapter 10

Who Knew?

We waited at the end of the final exam standing in front of the jounins and the Hokage wondering.

"Had I passed?" My guess was that no one was going to want me to pass after turning my jounin into nothing but a puddle of tears. It had been cruel, and I was going to find Koneko after this and yell at her for not telling me just how strong the images would hit the person trapped in the genjutsu.

Godaime stepped forward once more to speak. "We will continue the evaluation of your performances. You will be informed at the end of the week as to whether or not you will be accepted as jounins or whether you need more time as a chuunin. You are dismissed."

We all turned to leave. "Haruno, Sakura." I paused at the sound of my name being called and turned back. "I would like to speak to you later before you go to work, please report to my office after you get cleaned up." I bowed and nodded, not knowing whether this was good or bad I followed the others. Who no doubt had been listening and wondering the same thing. Was it because I would be disqualified for my behavior or would I be praised at having become so strong?

I was lost in my own thoughts when Yuri touched my arm. She'd been walking along beside me in silence, and I looked up at her to see an almost concerned look on her face.

"You depressed 'cuz you won that fight still?" She grinned trying to cheer me up.

"No, it's just that I didn't really know that would happen to him. And now, I'm thinking that maybe it'll count more against me than anything. I really owe Gai-sensei an apology, if what I think he saw, is what he really saw." I blew my breath out and it fluttered my bangs around the sides of my face.

"Count against you, you kicked his ass, you're just a lot stronger than he is." She said grinning.

"That's not it." I said looking back in front of me to make sure we were going in the right direction. "I transformed into Rock, Lee. Lee is his favorite pupil, so he already had a hard time fighting me seriously even though he knew I wasn't really Lee. On top of that, I tried emulating him a bit in his fighting style to kind of mentally psych him out some more. So no matter how you look at it, he couldn't fight at his true strength, because he would never willingly hurt Lee."

"Yeah, but your old sensei didn't do anything either, he just blocked all of my moves and refused to strike back. I don't think he fought to hurt me anymore than Gai sensei was fighting to hurt you."

I just groaned. "That just makes it worse! Don't you understand what happened down there? He would have killed himself if I hadn't intervened!"

"Well, yeah, I did see that. But you stopping him has got to count for points in your favor. Even you should see that with your complicated logic." She waggled her eyebrows playfully at me as she grinned.

"I guess. But-" She interrupted again

"No buts, you kicked ass, we've covered that, you wish things had turned out a little differently, we covered that as well, and you see that you gain points by saving him from himself, that's it, no more, end of discussion, there will be no more pity party for you! You can play your own violin later, for now I know of a shower and some clean clothes with my name all over them." I laughed at that.

"I completely agree, you smell." I said holding my nose pretending that she was giving off a foul odor.

"Look, or maybe I should say, smell, who's talking." She grinned back playfully running into my shoulder with her own. And with that we laughed and ridiculed each other all the way to the showers.

I was drying my hair with a towel when Ino suddenly burst into the bathroom without even knocking. "How could you?" She shrieked, shooting death glares at me.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, she'd known that I would be gone for a few days for the jounin exam. So I was a little bit confused.

"To Gai!" She shouted. "It's all over town that he can't stop weeping because of some genjutsu that you used on him!"

I felt all the blood immediately leave my face. "How- What-" I stuttered before regaining myself. "Wait a minute, I saw Gai as he was leaving the exam. He looked just fine! He only cried for a few minutes!" I cried in my own self defense.

"So it's true then?" Ino asked. "You really did beat Gai so badly that he was crying?"

"No- It wasn't like that! I didn't even mean to do it! It's just that the Genjutsu-" She interrupted me again.

"But you did do it." She said in a flat tone, she looked at me with eyes that were filled with anger.

"Wait a minute." I said holding up my hand, kind of confused. Why was Ino so angry, was she secretly dating Gai or something? "What is your problem? I said I didn't realize what was going to happen, and I plan to go apologize to him personally anyway. Why are you so upset about this?"

"If you don't understand, I'm not going to tell you!" She shouted and whirled around slamming the door behind her so hard that the pictures on the wall rattled and threatened to fall down.

"What was that about?" I asked out loud dropping the towel over the rack and quickly pulling on clean clothes. I headed out and went straight to the Hokage's residence. Everyone that I passed seemed to be giving me the same cold stare. I hurried inside and down the halls pausing outside the door of the Hokage's office knocking loudly. I glanced over my shoulder to find Shizune standing there expressionless waiting for the voice beyond the door to call out that we could come in.

We waited several long seconds, Shizune started to tap her foot impatiently as we waited, but finally Tsunade's voice was heard through the door calling us to come in.

Tsunade was standing next to the window looking down at the village. She still wore her ceremonial robes but had left the large hat sitting on her desk. I stood in front of her desk and simply waited to be acknowledged, God I hoped this wasn't about what I thought it was. She stood there though, forever it seemed forcing me to go through my mind berating myself again and again before she deigned to speak.

"Before I tell you why I called you here I would like to say, that while I disapproved of your methods in the last matches against Gai, I also can't help but be proud of how strong you've become. And while I am only one vote on the judge's panel, I will put in a good word for you." My heart leapt at her announcement, and I didn't feel quite so hopeless anymore. "Maybe I still have a chance at making jounin." I thought as I allowed my shoulders and neck to relax.

"However," She continued, and I forced myself to snap back to attention. "That does not excuse you from telling me about the situation with Uchiha Itachi." My breath hitched, I felt my heart begin to race as my Shishou turned her angry eyes to face my wide almost frightened eyes. How did she know? Had Yuri told her? No, impossible. Yuri hadn't left my side since we finished the second exam.

"I can see you trying to work this out in your head Sakura, let me just ask you, did you really think that we weren't still watching you for your own protection and the possible capture of the S-Class criminal Uchiha Itachi?" I swallowed, my mouth felt dry as if I'd been stuffing cotton in it. "I let you go on missions, I removed the visible anbu bodyguards, I even allowed you to compete in the jounin exams. And you repay me by withholding important information from me!" I flinched at her words

"No, I just didn't want you to call off the jounin exams, I wanted to prove myself and finish it." I said desperately. "I was sure you would cancel the exam if I told you or make me drop out for my own safety."

"Don't you think I know that?" Tsunade snapped slamming her palms into her desk and glaring at me. I just looked at the floor. I had nothing else to say in my defense, and I wouldn't lie, I wouldn't have told her about the fight because I was sure she would restrict me to the village again.

"Listen up, Sakura." Tsunade's voice cut through my thoughts and my head snapped up to stare back into her eyes. "Whether or not you make jounin, you will not be going on any solo missions, not until either Sasuke returns or Itachi is dead. And you will be guarded twenty-four-hours-a-day until then when you are not in Konoha. And until further notice, all of your missions are suspended pending MY approval otherwise. Do I make myself clear?" She glared at me as she spoke.

"Yes, Shishou, I understand." I bowed as she waved me out in disgust. I turned and walked to the door, pausing and turning back briefly to speak again. "But I don't have to like it."


	11. Chapter 11

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Chapter 11

It's been a long time...

Silently I crossed the clearing, the rest of my squad following my lead. In the early morning, just before sunrise we raced as quickly as we dared through the field searching for our target.

I'd been looking forward to this mission for the past few months, it would be the first time in a while where I would be able to test my skills against a strong opponent. Excitement and fear coursed through my body as we moved swiftly into the trees. And the man we were after was definitely strong. I used one hand to signal every one to a halt. We'd finally arrived at their base; Jiraya's information was indeed accurate. But I never did understand when and how he got the information he managed to relay to us about the enemies movements and whereabouts. I was always amazed when what he said was true. I had after all seen the perverted man in action many times in the village at the local baths.

But I pushed the silly thoughts aside and studied the small compound. I motioned Koneko forward and used sign language to relay her assignment. She instantly vanished into the darkness moving faster than most human eyes could track.

Our orders were to infiltrate, contact, and dispatch the target. It was of course easier said than done. Despite the enemy's reputation, power, and arrogance, there were still guards posted on the walls and at the gates.

We waited in silence unmoving like statues as we waited for Koneko's return. The chances that we would run into other difficulties were high, but I had come prepared to the best of my ability for any situation I could think of. I'd even gone through the plan and possible deviations with Shikamarou ahead of time to map everything out. As Konoha's brilliant yet lazy strategist we had thoroughly analyzed and recorded every possible avenue we could think of where things might go wrong. I was sure that we would have to use at least one of the fallback plans we had gone through the trouble of devising in that long and tedious briefing we'd had before leaving Konoha.

Koneko returned kneeling on the branch to my right, appearing silently, giving off the illusion that she had been there the whole time. I turned and waited for her report.

"Four guards on the wall, two in the courtyard, two at the front and rear gates and there is a mobile elite team that moves about outside the walls."

"Koneko use genjutsu to distract the guards, stay out here and wait for my signal. Haruko, Kou, Tatsumaki, follow me over the wall, we'll take out the courtyard guards while you," I pointed to Kou. "Scout as far as you can without being detected into the complex." I pulled my anbu hunter-nin mask down in from of my face once more and I heard as everyone else did the same. I remembered when Shizune had first handed me my uniform after passing the trials. She had smiled slyly and I pulled the clothing apart to find a black and white Tragedienne/Comedienne mask portraying half of a joyous expression while the other half showed utter despair. The mask had painted eyes on the front but I could only see through the narrow and slanting splits just underneath. It was a great joke among a select few of the anbu, Shizune, and Tsunade that were aware of my inner id persona Inner Sakura. Most of the time I wore a cloth mask around may hair that hid everything but my eyes and just didn't bother with the mask. But tonight I'd left my hair loose in the hopes that I would, for once, be recognized when we confronted the target and any others for that might matter.

Koneko jumped down to the ground below us hovering in a crouch just outside the tree's and started to weave her genjutsu around the small fortress. I had never seen her use this particular technique, it was an advanced jutsu that required the users precise concentration dispersed over a widespread area and involved a long and complicated combination of seals.

I felt the effects of the jutsu immediately after she finished forming the final seal, but only because I was trying to sense it. I immediately released its effect on me by biting my lip and drawing a small amount of blood. I jumped down and heard the others follow my example. Koneko just sat down in the grass cross legged in concentration.

We approached the wall and I had to remind myself not to use any chakra when we scaled the walls, just as an extra precaution. I didn't want anyone sensing us ahead of time because they sensed any foreign chakras. I stood in the courtyard watching Tatsumaki and Haruko stealthily slit the throats of the two guards and was glad that Naruto wasn't here.

While a strong ally and powerful ninja, he was completely wrong for this mission. I was glad when the Hokage had given him a mission in the Snow Country with Hinata just before this mission came in. He would be gone for a few months most likely. Just traveling to the Snow Country at this time of year would take a few weeks if they weren't in a hurry. While I didn't know the mission, I was happy he was going to be all alone with Hinata on this mission. Perhaps she would finally make a move – I wanted to light a fire under that girl, anything to get her moving!

I dropped down into the shadow of the doorway that Kou had disappeared through and waited while Haruko and Tatsumaki hid the bodies of the guards. I waited for Kou to return, but I figured I had a few more minutes before that happened. I had specifically requested Kou and Koneko for this mission because of their skills, I had picked Tatsumaki and Haruko because of my extensive training with them, I knew their skills and weaknesses better than any other anbu in Konoha. Not to mention the two pairs complemented each other.

Tatsumaki and Haruko were more along the lines of brawl type fighters like Kiba and Naruto. While Kou and Koneko were excellent fighters their strengths lay in genjutsu and trap setting, identifying, and defusing as opposed to just the straightforward heavy hitting taijutsu and ninjutsu of Tatsumaki or Haruko.

"Sakura-sama." I heard the wind-like whisper next to me as Kou returned to report. "There are many traps, but I have been able to circumvent most of them. No one walks in the hallways, but I believe the target is several floors underground." I turned and signed for Tatsumaki and Haruko to follow Kou's movements exactly and then turned back whispering.

"Lead the way." He just turned and we followed him down the dark hallway.

It was disgusting inside, cold and damp it smelled of mold and blood. I wrinkled my nose against the smell and tried to take shallow breaths through my mouth instead.

After a few minutes it wouldn't have been so bad, but the smell became stronger. The urge to vomit was strong but I pushed it back swallowing the bile in my throat. The traps were apparently still coated in the blood of the last intruders foolish enough to wander in here.

But I pushed back my thoughts, and ignored the stench of blood, we were almost there, the smell was much fainter down here, as if very few ever made it this far into the sanctuary that weren't meant to. I paused in the tunnel which ended in a set of thick steel double doors that looked like it would take an army to break down. Kou and Haruko crouched to my left, while Tatsumaki and I crouched on the right.

I checked the hinges, and Kou used some oil on them before I cracked the door open slightly. The room resembled a large fighting arena or training hall with a throne sitting at the far end of the room facing out as if to watch whatever entertainment was to be provided on the floor.

Hebi Sannen appeared to be sitting on the throne slumped over, with Kabuto standing to his right as if they were just waiting for us. I didn't see or feel anyone nearby and there weren't any chakra signatures except for those that I could see in the room. That didn't mean that there weren't any ninja's around that I just wasn't able to sense yet. I motioned Tatsumaki to come with me and for the Kou-Haruko team to stay out of sight for the moment before we slid into the room.

I approached the dais, careful to stay back far enough to sense any physical traps. I stared straight at Orochimaru, my eyes flickering to Kabuto for a second beneath my mask. I willed my heart beat to slow a bit before I spoke.

"Orochimaru! We are here to arrest you in the name of Konoha village for crimes against humanity!" I shouted this through the mask. I always had to shout; otherwise my voice came out so muffled no one heard me unless they were right next to me. An arrest wasn't part of the plan in any way, but it sounded better than "I'm here to kill you so hold still!"

I froze as a kunai rested gently at the back of my neck, and I heard the thud of what could only have been Tatsumaki falling to the floor. Kabuto had moved and I didn't even realize it. He'd gotten even better than when I last saw him.

"It's been a long time…Sakura." He said softly in almost a whisper from directly behind me.


	12. Chapter 12

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Chapter 12

You Shouldn't Underestimate Me!

Kabuto held the blade at the back of my neck ready to slice through and sever my spine and spinal cord. I just closed my eyes and sighed.

"I wish I could say it was a pleasure to see you again, but that would be a lie." I said still standing frozen in place, but continued to speak. "But with such a short visit, I'm sure you won't mind."

"You took the words right out of my mouth." Kabuto said, I could feel his confident and relaxed grin as if he hadn't a care in the world. "For some reason, I thought the standards were higher to reach the hunter-nin level even in Konoha. Apparently I was wrong." Orochimaru just sat there chuckling. My comrades stayed outside, I hadn't given the signal yet.

"You know Kabuto; you really shouldn't relax so soon. And you shouldn't underestimate me!" I said a bit louder. I heard an exclamation of surprise as he realized that the woman in front of him was just a clone, and I leapt from the shadows racing directly at Orochimaru. I could hear Kabuto turn in surprise as Kou and Haruko rushed into the room, but didn't get a chance to see anything but the blur of their moving shapes.

I had almost reached the dais, when I had to stop short. There was a figure there. My heart thumped again, wishing it wasn't him. Uchiha Sasuke stood five feet in front of me in a relaxed fighting stance. For a second I wondered if he knew who I was, but then I pushed the silly thoughts down and prepared myself. I quickly pulled my anbu katana into my hands crouched examining his stance while he waited for me to charge him. I knew he wouldn't move until I did, I was sure that he had been taught to wait and watch just as I had. But I didn't have the leisure of waiting, Orochimaru stood behind him and started down from the dais. I rushed in, my katana clashing angrily with Sasuke's own sword. But that wasn't my intention. I wasn't about to engage the Uchiha and let my prey escape. I threw the solution into his face that I always kept attached to the hilt of my sword for just such occasions, and he yelped in pain dropping his own sword and grabbing his eyes. I almost paused in my actions, watching the serious Uchiha drop his own sword was just too amusing. I wondered what would happen if I ever found a way to use it on the elder how he would react.

I'd invented the potion solution myself; I knew just how badly his eyes hurt right now. But it was a necessary tactic to cause temporary blindness allowing for me to rush in and seal his chakra tenketsu. Orochimaru was still slowly approaching when I used the senbon needles hidden in my arm guards and thrust two directly into his neck.

Orochimaru halted his advance in surprise as Sasuke fell forward onto the floor in a death like state. I just wanted to get him out of the way quickly. The hebi Sannen would know that and I wouldn't have much time.

I charged in feinting a katana swing to the right and instead brought my left foot up and connected with his side and whirled even faster into the air to perform a kick to his face. But the Sannen was fast and dodged my kick forming seals to counter my attack he yelled "Ganseki bakuhatsu no jutsu!" I jumped into the air determined to avoid the attack. It came from above and below. I concentrated chakra into my feet and hands knocking the large flying debris away from me as rocks rained down on me and shot up from the ground intent on crushing me in between. I had to smash through some as I continued to come at him. Behind me Kabuto continued to struggle with Kou and Haruko. I hoped that Tatsumaki was alright where he lay on the ground because I didn't have time to check on him. I plunged forward and formed seals making several clones of myself, while at the same time using a hidden earth technique to move within the ground. I formed seals in the dark and whispered. "Itami funsui no jutsu." Immediately the ground started rumbling again and I could see through my clones that spouts of water had shot out of the ground had begun their snake-like death dance. It was a technique I adapted after watching Kakashi use the water dragon technique on another ninja only this technique conjured boiling hot water that moved with lightning speed and accuracy to a marked area hitting the mark and causing shooting pain through the enemy. The name 'fountain of pain' was certainly justified. I had only hit Orochimaru slightly, but it had been enough. His screams echoed throughout the cavern as the first lash hit. He dodged but couldn't seem to move fast enough to avoid both the remainder of my exploding clones and the dancing water. One of my clones latched onto him starting to leech away his chakra. He must have sensed the chakra depletion after a few seconds because he dispelled the clone. The force of the explosion sent him flying back into the fountain zone where he was immediately attacked once more. I slid easily back to the surface and faced Orochimaru, he looked between me and the rest of my clones in anger but now his face also held an undertone of fear. He really hadn't expected me to be strong enough to challenge him or to have such dangerous jutsu's and sneaky tactics, he'd underestimated me to his own detriment.

He was hurting pretty bad from the full blown clone explosion. The more chakra the clone leaches from the enemy the bigger the explosion and that one had leached quite a bit. He glanced around the large room that we were using for our battleground until his gaze fell on Sasuke's prone form, his eyes narrowed and he jumped forward. I lunged and managed to trip him before he could reach the younger Uchiha and perform the body transfer jutsu. We both sprawled on the floor flying clear into the rubble strewn area from his own previous jutsu, and we rolled to a halt in one of the crevices that I'd made with my foot to repel his earth attack. We grappled for a bit, as I tried to pull free and keep from being strangled by his long tongue. I couldn't use my clones because I would explode right along with him and kill myself with my own attack. And even with my super strength fighting against a sannen was no walk in the park especially with that disgusting tongue as it twisted and wrapped around and around parts of me to keep me still enough for him to attack. I pulled back and smashed my forehead into his face and then jumped to my feet while his reactions were delayed for that dazed split second. I used that time to grip him by his own tongue and pull him up and around over my head sending him flying into another of my clones, which immediately exploded around him.

I and the remaining three clones rushed him pushing him back towards the water spouts. He pulled the shining sword kusanagi out of his mouth and rushed at me with it. I'd heard much about this mythic sword but I'd never seen it before. My guess was that he was bringing it out as a last resort, I could tell that he was already on his last legs. While he had more than enough chakra to give me a fight, he was too wounded for his body to cooperate. The unexpected exploding clone had burned off half his hair and blasted away parts of his face including his left ear. The burns traveled all the way down the left side of his body, the next clone had exploded directly against his raw flesh, and since his medic was currently in battle he couldn't heal his master. It was a disgusting sight looking at him. His clothes were melted to what skin he had left and I could clearly see the muscles and tendons in his arm as he swung at me. But instead of trying to dodge, which would have probably gotten me skewered in the chest, I stepped into the blow. The sword speared into my shoulder as he stared at me in surprise. He had expected me to dodge, which would have pretty much ended the fight because I would have been near death.

The pain was excruciating, but I pushed forward and grabbed his right wrist with my left. I summoned chakra to my hands and placed the right on his chest just above his heart. His eyes widened in surprise as he felt the first wave of pain. I quickly pushed my chakra into him, forming strings that wound around his heart. Much like puppet chakra strings they came from my fingertips and when I pulled back squeezing his heart painfully, he screamed in agony. His long tongue was instantly wrapped around my wrist trying to pull my hand away. He tried in vain to remove his right hand from his sword or to pull it free, but having inhuman strength comes in handy at times and he couldn't pull free. He moved his near useless left arm up and placed it against my throat gripping it as tightly as he could, which wasn't much.

I gave the chakra strands another last tug, much harder this time, and they sliced his heart into pieces. His face froze with his mouth wide open in a silent scream that would never come. Then his breath whooshed out of his body and his knees collapsed. The look of surprise was frozen on his face, as I released him and stepped back allowing him to fall face down on the floor. I stood there panting for a moment and then unwrapped his tongue that still clung limply to my wrist, and then took a deep breath and pulled the sword from my shoulder with a painful wrench. It elicited a cry of pain from my lips that I couldn't prevent.

I heard a strangled cry from behind me and turned to see Kabuto kneeling on the floor Haruko and Kou having shoved their katana's into his chest and neck. A second later his head spun off his shoulders and rolled across the floor.

I dispelled the fountain of death jutsu and then went to kneel beside Tatsumaki. He was breathing, and there was a large goose egg and bruise forming where he had hit the floor, but no physical wounds that I could see. I placed my hand palm down on his forehead and closed my eyes searching for the cause. But it was apparent rather quickly that he had been put under a forced sleep technique. Which confused me, why wouldn't Kabuto just kill him or knock him out? But I didn't care much now; both Kabuto and Orochimaru were dead. And we would get to take the unconscious Uchiha back to Konoha. That was enough to earn anyone a month long drink fest and the death of Orochimaru would certainly warrant a large holiday. But we were anbu, we were weapons without a name or a face. We did the silent dirty work that no one else was able to or wanted to do. There wouldn't be anyone in a bar asking to buy me a drink because they recognized me as the slayer of Orochimaru. But then, I'd never wanted to be famous like Kakashi the Copy Ninja, I didn't want my name and face in the bingo books so that every missing nin could assess my skills and put me on a to do list. So the only ones who would know I'd killed the worst traitor to ever come out of Konoha would be my team, the Hokage and of course Sasuke.

I walked back to where Sasuke still lay and gently pulled the needles out of his neck tipping him on his side and letting the blood drain out of his mouth. He groaned in pain, as I lay him back down on the cold floor. Quickly before he completely revived I pulled out another small vial and poured the liquid contents down his throat. He swallowed convulsively and gagged a bit at the taste. But when his eyes finally opened, and he tried to move, he couldn't. I was one of the best medic's in Konoha, and not for no good reason. I knew how to heal, and how to kill. I had spent several years in Konoha on hospital duty some of which was punishment based but in the end the cage I was trapped in had helped me develop a host of new techniques, poisons, and given me an entirely new arsenal of weapons. I had developed the burning eye powder, then refined and diluted it to a liquid form; I had also developed the chakra and body bind solutions. Those varied for each personal usage of course, depending on how long you wanted the person to remain immobile.

The Uchiha tried to move again to find that his body still wouldn't cooperate. His eyes widened in anger and fear. "What the hell did you do to me bitch!" He shouted as he continued to try and move his limbs. I just sighed and pulled him up off the floor and tugged him over my shoulder. I watched as Haruko lay out a sheet and Kou helped her place the bodies of the two dead men inside.

"Don't forget the head." I said pointing in the corner where it lay facing the ceiling.

"Eeew." Haruko squealed as she picked up the head by the hair and tossed that onto the blanket as well. I picked up Kusanagi and dropped it beside Orochimaru's body on the sheet, getting one last look at his face. Compared to the look of surprise on Orochimaru's face Kabuto's eyes and mouth were closed and his expression was relaxed, almost peaceful in death. Kou formed a few seals and spoke the words, "oki-sa gensho no jutsu." I'd thought it was the silliest technique ever when I had first heard of it, but it was actually quite useful. Kou called it size reduction but I'd once called it shrinking sheet no jutsu and it had caught on, no one but Kou called it size reduction no jutsu. I watched as the wrapped bodies began to slowly shrink until they could fit into a tiny box the size of a cigarette pack, which Kou slid into his pack. Haruko picked up Tatsumaki and we all started back up to the top with Kou leading the way. He was going to be pissed when he finally woke up to realize he had slept through the entire battle. I listened to everything around me and heard Sasuke's light breathing against my back he seemed to see the futility of speaking, and was probably seeing to fuzzily to try anything yet. But I'd give my favorite pair of panties to Jiraya if he wasn't planning an avenue of escape as soon as he regained the use of even one limb.

Either that or he was just staring at my ass.

It was easy once we got back to the surface to make our way through the guards still locked in Koneko's genjutsu, it made my appreciation for her abilities increase even more. We had been down in that hell hole for several hours now having to carefully make our way through the traps and the fighting. And when we got back to Koneko, she was just sitting there exactly as we had left her, only slightly sweatier.

Haruko lay Tatsumaki down next to her and she started in surprise her jutsu failing for a moment when she thought he was dead. I lay Sasuke down next to him and performed several hand seals and then used my chakra to clear his mind of the genjutsu which he seemed unable to break from.

He groaned and tried to put his hand to his forehead where he had the large bruise, but Koneko and Haruko grabbed his hands to keep him still. He opened his eyes with a start of surprise and then relaxed to see the familiar masked faces surrounding him. I continued using my chakra to heal his head until the golf ball size bump on his head had deflated to only a slight swelling. The bruising was still there, but I left it there not wanting to waste anymore chakra on such a minor wound. I was already tired; both the fountain of death technique and the chakra heart string technique required a lot of energy, concentration and chakra.

I sat back on my heels and grinned behind my mask. "You missed the entire battle Tatsumaki, next time you decide to go to sleep during a fight just let me know and I'll make up a bedroll for you." We chuckled a little and then I spoke again. "However, it appears that we have several guards that still need to be taken care of, and while I could do it I don't feel like it." I stretched as if I were Shikamarou and about to lie down and watch the clouds. "So why don't you go take care of them for us?" The entire mission had gone swimmingly and while Koneko had already dropped her genjutsu Tatsumaki jumped eagerly to his feet and sprinted off back toward the dimwitted armed guards with his partner close behind.

"I gotta say, this mission was a lot easier to complete than I thought it would be, Captain." Her voice was full of humor and I could tell she was being devious saying it to try and torture the Uchiha that lay unable to move at her feet. She was playing with her shuriken holder when I told her to stop. It wasn't working anyway; it was just pissing him off from the expression on his face.

"Well at least that's one thing they don't have in common." I thought to myself. Itachi always kept his features in the same expressionless mask, never showing any emotion. But Sasuke never had learned how to hide his anger; it was a point in his favor in my opinion. But they were still too alike in my experience.

"Captain!" Haruko exclaimed pointing at me. "You're bleeding!" I looked down to find that I had completely forgotten about the shoulder wound. It was still dribbling blood down the front of my vest sluggishly.

"Hmm, how did I forget about that?" I said thoughtfully, because now that I looked at it, it REALLY HURT! I performed seals again and forced the healing chakra into first the back of my shoulder and then the front using my right hand to reach the back part of the wound.

Sasuke was giving me a funny look as I glanced up at him. The light had grown around us and it looked to be about nine in the morning or perhaps later. We had arrived here this morning at about five meaning we'd been inside about four hours. I looked at Sasuke again and snapped. "What?" He was really irritating me.

"You seem familiar. Do I know you?" He asked. His voice was hard, as if he were trying to still act tough even though he was confused and curious. I couldn't take it; I threw back my head and laughed until tears slid out of my eyes and I was hiccoughing with breathless laughter as he glared at me and the other two who had joined me in laughing. When finally I regained enough control to speak, I replied. "Oh, undoubtedly, but you'll just have to figure that out on your own." I finished and burst into fresh peals of laughter.


	13. Chapter 13

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Chapter 13

The Unplanned Battle pt. 1

Once Tatsumaki returned from clearing out the rest of the guards we started heading back toward Konoha. My shoulder ached and Sasuke was starting to feel heavy, but he didn't say another word as we traveled. It was a slower pace than what we usually did but we were all a little tired. Tatsumaki offered to carry the Uchiha for awhile and I gratefully released him rolling and shrugging my shoulders in weightless relief.

I heard a grunt from our immobile hostage, but who cared if he didn't like being carried by a guy? Not me, at least not anymore.

For the longest time, I'd thought I was seriously in love with the dark haired man we were now taking back home. But I really hadn't understood when I was younger exactly what romantic love was. But now, I was sure that all I felt for Sasuke was the same brotherly affection that I felt for Naruto. I wanted what was best for him, and to protect him. And more than ever I wanted to help him with his revenge. I was sick and tired of his older brother.

"Down!" I yelled, dropping from the tree branches as I sensed the incoming weapons and enemy. Just as I dropped to the ground I could feel the air and bushes chopped and sliced apart as several kunai and shuriken passed our heads.

"Tatsumaki, Koneko, double time it back to Konoha with Sasuke and send reinforcements. Kou, Haruko follow behind and cover their retreats in case he gets past me, but whatever you do, make sure you keep going!" I slowed my pace slightly as I waited for him to come within range of my attack. I wasn't sure if he came because Sasuke was here or if he'd just gotten lucky while following me again. Apparently he still had great hopes that he could break me mentally.

Time and time again, I had fought him, and the more I fought him the closer I came to defeating him. But so far I had been lucky. Every time he seemed to be losing patience and was ready to have done with the whole thing and just kill me I'd had some huge stroke of luck and he'd been driven back or someone had burst in and he'd run off. I didn't think that would happen this time unless there was a space time distortion anomaly that allowed the squad to get to Konoha in less than a few minutes and send reinforcements in that same short amount of time.

So in other words, I was probably fucked! I could still see the team ahead of me, though Koneko and Tatsumaki were more than fifty feet away by now. I felt him coming; somehow I just knew where he was now.

I jumped up and grabbed the branch above my head letting him smoothly sail past without taking me by surprise, I lashed out with my foot as he passed connecting a grazing hit to his ankle, but he was just too fast to get a deep hit. I dropped down onto the branch below me as Itachi shed his Akatski cloak and we ran at each other along the heavy bough of the tree, trying to land a blow on our opponent. In our first several fights, all he had done was evade my every move, but since I had started working on my speed I had been able to land small grazing hits on his lithe form. After he realized I could hit him he started to fight back rather than just trying to slide out of the way, turning to use my own movements against me during our fights.

I dodged his right hook as his fist swung over my head, grabbing his wrist with my right infused with my chakra induced strength I swung with my left, I only grazed him as he stepped forward trying to push my off the branch and fall on top of me. But I attached my feet to the branch and used that momentum to swing us backwards, grabbing his thin purple mesh shirt I pulled him down and used gravity to throw him over my head toward the ground below as I hung suspended by my feet to the branch. I let go the moment he was far enough below me and kicked out in an improvised version of the lion combo Sasuke had made up during the preliminary matches of our first chuunin exam. I pushed chakra into my foot and slammed it down into his abdomen as we landed crushing his chest and splattering his blood and entrails everywhere like a bomb had gone off inside his stomach.

Well, that's what I envisioned happening but instead he used kawarimi no jutsu and I found a large log being shattered in his place, the force of the chakra induced blow forming a crater underneath with a diameter of about twenty feet. I shot forward and rolled over out of the crushed earth circle as Itachi tried to come in from behind me while I finished the move. Instead I moved too fast for him to catch me with the attack and formed more seals as I flew backward in the air. "Fist of fire!" I yelled landing safely in a crouch and charging back toward Itachi. If I even grazed him with my fingertips he and his clothing would catch and hold the flame I was producing, and even if I didn't cause too much damage with my blow, the fire would cause him some damage or at least cost him some chakra. I used it in conjunction with five of my shadow clones. If I could get one to latch onto him, it would start leeching chakra out of him and would explode in his face when he released it. He knew about this but it was still a good plan as Itachi seemed to have an enormous chakra reserve compared to mine. I had found that the clones could leech the chakra from my opponent and feed it back to me in a linear design that would allow me to keep up my own chakra reserves and energy, especially if I needed to heal myself during the course of the battle.

We charged at him some of us moving in to attack while others hung back in a defensive position waiting for his next move. I attacked furiously as he dodged each blow, then he struck out and I had to block with my left arm. Pain shot through my shoulder and my shoulders spasmed with the sudden pain. He took this opportunity to grip my wrist and throw me into a tree. He cleanly avoided my hands with his deft movements and attacks. I gasped and spun away preventing him from trapping me against the tree like I thought he'd intended. But as I prepared the rest of my clones to charge I noticed he had something in his hand, held on his turned up palm, he was smirking again. It was the ribbon I'd used to tie my hair back- the one Ino had given me so many years ago when we'd become friends. It was like a good luck charm for me. And it pissed me off that he was dirtying it in his foul hand.

For a man whose expression never changed he looked exceptionally pleased with himself. He held out his hand palm up as if he was offering it to me. But I wasn't about to fall for that one, I screamed my anger at him and we charged. I feinted with my left fist and brought my right across instead and swung my left leg at him trying to catch him in between the blows or at least land one of the blows. But as still as he stood he disappeared and I felt the blow knock my feet out from under me. I tried to roll away but he caught my hair which had come loose without the ribbon and was now flying about my body with each movement I made, very dangerous, since my hair came nearly to my waist now.

He dragged me backward by my hair and to my feet gripping the anbu mask and yanking it free tossing it aside before he tried to spin me around to face him. I lashed out with my left leg but I didn't have enough chakra left to enhance my strength and I was tired. So when I made contact with his side it merely caused him to grunt in discomfort, at least I knew he would have a large bruise there tomorrow if he didn't get himself healed. I spun back the other way and high kicked with my right hitting him in the right shoulder the arm that held my hair. I felt a clump of my hair ripped free of my scalp as I darted out of his grasp. He'd somehow managed to dispel all my clones while we were fighting, or was it just before? I was panting for breath, and I watched him, I waited this time for him to make his move. Besides, I'd used up a good amount of energy and chakra just to defeat Orochimaru, then I'd had to at least partially heal myself using up more chakra in the process. The last couple hours had replenished a small amount of that chakra but it wasn't enough, I was tired, nearly drained before this fight even began. I heard him coming and I drew six shuriken and threw them at him dodging the attack. He pulled out a kunai and slashed out ward barely missing my thigh. I wished my hair was tied back right then, all the moving and wind around us was blowing my hair up into my face making it harder for me to see, and I didn't have time to turn around, he was just too fast for me to get back and use any ninjutsu. Not that he wouldn't see through those anyway, he always had his sharingan activated.

I slipped over a tree root and landed on my back. "This is it." I thought to myself. "He's worn me out and is going to use the Tsukiyomi to try and break me again." I felt his hand close around my throat and he lifted me up in his one hand while gripping my right arm. I blinked and I was suddenly slammed back against a tree. I squeezed my eyes shut to keep him out of my mind. Despite being my greatest defense, I didn't want him in my mind again. It was like a form of rape every time he got in, even Inner Sakura didn't care for his company anymore. It made me feel slightly dirty to have my mind laid bare to the creep in front of me. Just let it be over quickly, I thought.

But suddenly, I felt him press his mouth to mine, almost tenderly like a lover. I was so surprised that my eyes shot open. And he dragged me down into the abyss of the Tsukiyomi once more.


	14. Chapter 14

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Chapter 14

The Unplanned Battle pt. 2

I hung from the cross like usual nothing new about that, and while previously I'd always been afraid when I entered this domain, today I was just too tired to feel the fear. Inner Sakura just walked up from behind me and leaned on the cross. She seemed very neutral to this whole thing. As if she was simply bored. I knew that I was just tired and disgusted, but she didn't feel those with me, I could feel it. Itachi wasn't a challenge here, she could fight him over and over again and the outcome would always be the same, she would always win and that to her was boring.

"When are you going to give up?" She asked, giving him a dirty look. "Can't you already tell it's pointless? You can't win against me in here."

"I didn't come here to fight today." He said reaching out and grabbing my inner wrist and pulling her tight to him in an embrace. "What is going on?" Confused thoughts swirled around my head as I thought of the kiss. "He'd only kissed me to get me to open my eyes, right? So he could pull me into the Tsukiyomi, right?"

But then he grabbed her hair pulling her head back and pressed his mouth against hers, holding his hand around her waist he slid his hand down to cup her cheek and push her pelvis against his. She froze in shock, we both did, and I struggled with my bonds trying to feel sickened at the sight of him through all this but couldn't find the emotions that I tried to grasp for like a hair floating on the wind it eluded me. The strength Inner Sakura usually wielded to circumvent and eject him was pushed further from her mind. I flushed as heat slid up between my legs like some foreign virus infecting me.

It was embarrassing and humiliating to watch my Inner self kissing Uchiha Itachi, but as I began being able to feel what she was feeling I squirmed trying to get free as the strong sensations flared up and filled me with the need to pant as if I wasn't able to get enough air.

Itachi's hand had slipped around the front and was massaging my pubic area with one hand, teasing the sensitive nub with his fingers causing us to both cry out in pleasure. But then Itachi pulled back.

"You belong to me now; I won't allow anyone else to have you." And when he said that it was enough to cause Inner Sakura to pull her anger around us both and push him away. She joined me in screaming at him.

"I don't belong to anybody ass-wipe!" And with that we were able to push him out. I fell back into my real body and immediately pushed him away so hard he tumbled backward to the ground and had to roll back to his feet. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and spat on the ground to get the taste out of my mouth. Desire and anger both coursed through my veins but I wouldn't allow the one to sway me. I would fuel the other and push forward.

I pulled out six more shuriken and was about to let them fly when someone jumped down in between us but all I saw was a blur that hit Itachi in the chest knocking him back a few feet, but then he was just gone. The figure chased after Itachi, and they were gone within seconds.

I slowly stood and recovered some of my shuriken and kunai from the battle scarred forest floor around me. It took me awhile to actually find my mask from where it had been thrown. I looked for the ribbon, but it was nowhere to be seen. I gripped my left shoulder as it ached and realized that the partially healed wound had reopened and was bleeding again. Not to mention the headache in the back of my head where he'd ripped out a handful of my hair and smashed it into a tree. I sighed, I didn't have enough chakra to stop the bleeding so I pulled a roll of gauze from in my small travel materials pack and took off my vest and mesh shirt. I slid the straps of my sports bra down a bit before trying to wrap the cloth around my chest and shoulder area.

It took forever because my left shoulder felt like it was on fire. I was just tying the last of the bandage in place when a pair of feet thumped down in front of me.

I glanced up, only a little surprised to see Sasuke standing there. I really should have given him a larger dose if I'd wanted him to be immobile for the entire trip home, but I'd planned on re-dosing him when we stopped for a break. I also hadn't planned on the confrontation with Itachi, but it looked like he couldn't catch up to Itachi anyway.

The younger Uchiha just looked down at me with his red sharingan blazing away while I continued to ignore him in favor of fixing my clothing and put my armor back on. He didn't speak until I was struggling into my gray armor once more.

"So it's you then is it, Sakura?" He made it a question, as if he wasn't quite sure. It had been awhile since I'd seen him, back when I was still a chuunin actually. He looked a little different now too, not much but taller and a bit more muscular.

"How many other pink haired kunoichi's in Konoha do you know that would risk their life in exchange for yours?" I asked sarcastically getting slowly to my feet and then looking up at him again. I was about 5'10" but Sasuke was still a half a head taller than me. I glanced around and started walking back toward Konoha, pausing I looked back at him as he still stood where he'd landed.

"By the way, you didn't kill my squad members did you?" I let that come out exactly how it felt inside, harsh and angry, vaguely threatening. His head shot up in surprise at my tone, I could see it for a moment on his face before he covered it with that blank expression he and his brother did so well.

"And if I did?" He asked walking toward me until he and I were toe to toe, the top of my head came up only to his nose so it was a little hard to glare and him, but I made do. Of course it is kind of hard to be threatening when you can't glare someone in the eye's, but I settled for glaring at his ear and the air next to his head.

"Nothing, for the moment." I gritted my teeth wishing I wasn't so tired from fighting his brother, angry at my own weaknesses again.

"That's good to hear, I'd hate for you to throw you're life away so stupidly, especially when you were the supposed brains behind our team. But I suppose it makes sense, you always were one to think of everything, while managing to never really do anything at all." I could feel my face getting red, in embarrassment and anger. I was so furious I wanted to swing at him. But then I just relaxed and unclenched my teeth letting out the breath I'd been holding. I looked back up at him while carefully avoiding his eyes before speaking.

"If you're trying to get a rise out of me, it's not going to work. You don't know me; in fact I don't think you ever truly did. Not with the fact that you've never cared about anyone in your entire life since your family. So I completely understand why you think I'm weak. I mean I only knocked you on your ass within a matter of ten seconds and then moved on the kill Orochimaru. Of course you were flat on your back unconscious for that part so I guess I can't blame you." I turned and started to walk away, when he caught my shoulder and spun me back around to face him.

"What happened to you Sakura?" He demanded grabbing my shoulders tightly. "When did you become like me?" I pulled my shoulders free with a jerk.

"I guess I could trace it back to the day your brother started stalking me." I spat out and ran off in the direction of Konoha where I knew my squad was probably lying either dead or dying. I knew the entire situation with Itachi and I would interest him, he would want to know why he had come after me, among other questions that seemed innumerable even in my own head. Some of which I would indeed like the answer to myself, but I knew I would probably never get them, at least not in this lifetime. Especially if I accomplished the goal I had set for myself.

I felt him move in beside me, but he didn't touch me again and didn't say anything. I ran until we reached the spot where he had left those under my command. They lay sprawled over the ground mostly unconscious, various wounds readily apparent and differing in states of severity. Thankfully only Haruko seemed to have any truly serious injuries. I lay her down and pulled off her vest to get at the bloody wound I could feel beneath the armor and skin itself. I rationed what little chakra I could muster trying to stop the internal bleeding while leaving some chakra to heal the rest of them. Then I applied some alcohol to the wound, eliciting a groan from Haruko as I pressed down the stinging fluid soaked bandage over her skin and bound it tightly. I set her arm and splinted it before moving on to Kou. Kou had a sprained ankle and as I tried to ease the swelling with some extra chakra, he started to wake while I worked. The ankle would be alright in a day or two.

"Lay still, Kou." I said gently pushing his shoulder back into the dirt; he made a protesting noise but did as he was told.

"Hai, Sakura-sama." He whispered, I felt his ribs, and he flinched, a few were broken but they weren't bad so I moved on to Koneko. She had a broken nose and a concussion. I just glared at Sasuke as he stood there watching me try to heal my friends. I was glad she was unconscious because I didn't have enough chakra to make it painless for her as I moved her nose back into place and tried to connect the torn and crushed cartilage of her nose, splinting the tiny pieces of bone that made up the inferior border back together inside her delicate nasal passages.

I could only do a passable job at this point but later, I or Tsunade would patch her up better. Lastly I crawled to Tatsumaki feeling so tired that I really didn't think I could get up. He didn't look particularly banged up, and for a moment, I thought he might just be asleep again, but no, there was another lump on his forehead right beside the first one where his head had hit the tree he had laid sprawled face down in front of. I didn't bother with it and just crawled back to Koneko and shook her shoulder trying to wake her. She moaned softly, her eyes fluttered open and then shut once again. I shook her again and she opened her eyes looking at me trying to focus her eyes on me.

"Captain?" Her voice slurred as she spoke breaking in places and her usually beautiful soft tones sounding strange and nasal from all the swelling and blood clogging her sinuses right now. "What's going on? Where am I?"

"You must have hit her pretty hard, Uchiha. She doesn't even know where she is. That should make a big strong man like you proud, right? Beating up people who are already exhausted and only trying to help you always was your specialty." My voice dripped sarcasm and pent up anger, but I didn't wait for a reply I turned back to Koneko. "Koneko, you need to stay awake okay? You've got a concussion. Here try to sit up." I instructed offering her my arm. She held on weakly and I used my other arm to help get her upright and leaning back against the tree to help her stay awake.

"Why are you healing her, or the other man over there for that matter?" Sasuke asked indignantly finally speaking, clearly something was irritating him. "Their wounds aren't serious, why didn't you just heal the one in danger of dying and then allow your chakra to rebuild its reserves? Why exhaust yourself like this?" He tsk'ed me in irritation, at my superfluous actions.

"I doubt someone like you, who abandoned and attacked his own comrades, would understand. So I won't waste my breath." I didn't even bother looking at him but instead pulled my hair back with my hands trying to keep it out of my face pulling it back and tying it in a knot since I didn't find the ribbon Itachi had stolen. I heard his sigh from behind me. I was surprised that he hadn't run off by now or started something though I was sure that would come soon enough. It wasn't as if I was trying to keep him there or even could have if I was trying right now. I was just too drained. I had faced off with two incredibly strong opponents in a very short timeframe. And while I had bested the one, I'd basically been stomped into the ground by the other, it was one battle too many for my exhausted system. But he just stood there making me want to whack him around the head every time I looked at one of my friends.

"Koneko…shit." I said softly, she was out cold again. I lightly slapped her cheek and her eyes fluttered open again. "Try, Koneko, try to stay awake. If you fall asleep you may not wake up." I tried to impress upon her. Her eyes widened in surprise as she looked behind me to see Sasuke standing there. She probably thought he'd come back to kill us all.

"It's all right, Koneko, he's not going to hurt you again." I said reassuringly.

"You shouldn't make promises that you can't keep, Sakura. You're all so weak right now I could kill you blindfolded."

"Uchiha, if you were going to kill us, you'd have done it already and you know it." I snapped, glancing back at him and pushing myself up to a standing position so that I could face him.

"The only reason I haven't killed anyone yet, is because you may have information I want." I snorted and started to walk away, and he followed. Like Akamaru followed Kiba around when he was just a puppy.

"So why don't you ask your stupid questions?" I said stopping to pick up some firewood.

"What are you doing, you can't build a fire here Itachi will see it and come back to kill all of you. And I'm pretty sure I don't need to remind you that you're in no condition to fight him right now." He grabbed the wood from my hands and threw it back onto the ground.

"First off Uchiha, Itachi left the area and if he didn't he still wouldn't come back today because I'm not at full strength. He doesn't play with weaklings. He just kills them. Besides, he'll need to recharge his chakra almost as badly as I do. Two, even if he did come back, isn't that what you're hoping for, so you can kill him? Isn't that your entire motivation in life? Isn't that why you left Konoha in the first place?" I just glared at him again daring him to challenge me as I bent to pick the wood back up off the ground.

"I want to fight him on my terms, not his Sakura." He said quietly.

"Yeah, I could sure tell that this afternoon when you went off chasing after him even when I'm sure you already knew you wouldn't catch him." I gathered some more firewood and walked back to the camp, quickly starting a fire. I moved Haruko closer to the fire and put Kou right next to her on the outside in case she needed protection, even wounded Kou would fight to protect us all. I also moved Tatsumaki closer to Koneko and lay him next to her, hoping to make it easier for her to doze and then wake as I needed to rouse her every so often.

"You said you had questions, was that a lie?" I asked stirring the fire and pulling out some rations from one of the packs. I settled in front of the fire to make some broth for my partially lucid and wounded friends.


	15. Chapter 15

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Chapter 15

The Unplanned Battle pt. 3

"You said you had questions, was that a lie?" I asked stirring the fire and pulling out some rations from one of the packs. I settled in front of the fire to make some broth for my partially lucid and wounded friends. I wanted to get something nourishing inside them to help them regain their energy, and mine as well.

But my needs could wait a bit until I took care of my subordinates.

"What are you doing now?" He asked sounding irritated again.

"Are you going to ask a serious question sometime today or do I have to hit you over the head with something before you get to the effing point?" I snarled back at him.

He just looked shocked for a moment. Apparently all the time he'd spent with Orochimaru, training and growing up, he had seemed to think that everyone else was just frozen in a time capsule simply waiting for him to come back, and that when he did everything was going to be the same as before. But before he could say anything, I spoke again.

"Ya know what? I don't think I will answer your questions. I think I'll just let you wonder." I said, sadistically. And turned back to the broth I was attempting to make.

"I could make you tell me." He said, and when I glanced up. He had his Sharingan activated. "No, actually you couldn't." I said looking down again at what I was doing before I chopped off half a finger or something.

"And what if I started killing your friends?" He sounded very serious.

"Killing my friends wouldn't get you anywhere but in a lot deeper trouble jackass. Besides, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar." I said mostly ignoring his threat and crawled back over to Koneko to wake her again. "How many fingers am I holding up?" I asked holding up three fingers.

"Um, it looks like three but everything is still fuzzy Captain." Her eyes moved in and out of focus due to the concussion, and then Koneko whispered. "What's going on with the Uchiha? Is he holding us hostage or something?"

I just laughed, which seemed to reassure her. "Here, eat something before you go back to sleep." I handed her a pack of travel emergency rations and went to give some to Kou as well since he was conscious also before I sat back by the fire again. Sasuke squatted down behind me as I did; he'd been walking about the rough camp as I ignored him and tended to my companions.

"What if I were going to kill Naruto?" He whispered directly into my ear.

"The fact that you are arrogant enough to assume Naruto would be so easily killed is beyond me. But the fact of the matter is, that I am here, while Naruto is not. Heck, Naruto is on a mission of his own right now, he's nowhere near Konoha. So trying to threaten him is just not going to happen." I ignored his presence for a bit more, but he just stayed there kneeling behind me so close I could feel his body heat. From what I could see he really hadn't changed that much, he was still too arrogant for his own good. He also was still hesitant when it came to attacking Konoha, or perhaps it was just his regard for old teammates, though probably not. Maybe he just didn't want to kill us, of course I was fairly sure he wasn't above doing so if it got him the information he apparently wanted. "Listen, I'll make you a deal." I said sitting back on my heels again when his presence was starting to get to me.

"What kind of deal?" He sounded suspicious. I just smiled.

"Tomorrow when we get to the first clearing we'll have a fight. A strictly taijutsu only no fight, no chakra use. If you can beat me and make me admit defeat, then I'll tell you everything you want to know, even the embarrassing stuff that I withheld from Tsunade and Ino. Stuff that only I or Itachi could tell you. But if I beat you to the point where you can no longer fight, then you come back to Konoha with us of your own volition. And you take whatever punishment they give you, and when you're ready to go after Itachi, you allow Naruto and me to help you." I stared at him, watching that emotionless mask as he considered my challenge. I couldn't tell what he was thinking, but I figured it was something along the lines of "She probably won't even be able to touch me in a straight hand-to-hand fight, she was always a genjutsu user and was weak in taijutsu." Or maybe it was more like. "Even if I do lose, it really is in my favor to get back in the good graces of Konoha and then I'll just ditch the two when I want to go after Itachi." Of course those were just my vain imaginings of what his thoughts might sound like or not, but it was entertaining to thing about as I stared at that expressionless face that looked so much like his brother's. This was extremely disconcerting whenever I saw him on the periphery of my vision. He seemed to think about what I said forever, I grew bored of watching him and turned back to the broth I had started and stirred it.

I ladled some out into a bowl to cool and knelt down beside Haruko and lifted her head into my lap so that I could spoon some down her throat without her choking. I massaged her throat and jaw to relax her muscles and blew on the spoon full to make sure that it wasn't too hot before putting it to her mouth.

"I accept." Sasuke spoke so suddenly that it startled me making me dribble a bit down Haruko's chin. I wiped it away and looked up at him.

"Do you accept all of the terms of the challenge?" I asked, making sure he understood what he was doing. He simply nodded and said, "Yes."

"Then shake we'll shake on it. And our deal is sealed." I held out my right hand, he stood and walked toward me clasping my hand tightly with his own. "Now why don't you go sleep off the drugs and allow your tenketsu to reopen?" I said grinning at him. He simply nodded and moved out of the inner circle of the camp and jumped up into a tree. He leaned against the trunk his legs hanging on either side of the branch, he didn't move again after that.

I didn't trust him anymore though, so I stayed alert first spoon feeding Haruko and then Tatsumaki. He wasn't really hurt bad but I didn't want to wake him; he needed rest what with two head injuries in one day.

Finally, I felt sure that I'd given Sasuke enough time to have fallen asleep. I checked once more on Koneko who seemed to be recovering from her concussion fairly well. Then I lay down on the opposite side of the camp from Sasuke next to Kou. And I was asleep in seconds.

I slept the rest of the day, all night and on into the morning. By the time I awoke, the sun was high in the sky once more. I opened my eyes and found everyone was already awake and huddled around me facing out as if we were under attack.

I sat up alarmed. "What's wrong?" I asked groggily looking around; I didn't see any enemies, just Sasuke sitting by the fire with that same impassive look on his face.

"What's wrong?" Kou asked repeating my words in open shock. "This man nearly killed us all yesterday, and then we couldn't wake you." He glared across the campfire. I just sighed; it looked like he was feeling better at least. I pulled my knees under me and turned to Kou.

"He's not a threat." I said gently, with a hand on his shoulder. "Now let me look at your ribs, they need some more healing." I ignored everything else then and pulled up the shirt of his anbu uniform and placed my fingertips gently on the large bruised area on the right side of his chest. I closed my eyes and felt the fractured rib, and the two broken ones above it. I pushed chakra into this chest to push the bones back into place and then used a little chakra to set and splint them. The swelling and bruising went down some immediately, I opened my eyes and let his shirt fall back into place, smiling.

"That's better. Now I need to check you Haruko." I turned to the woman straining to sit up, and I gently forced her back to the ground and once more inspected her wound. The internal bleeding had been stopped and looked like it was fine so long as she didn't move around too much. Her abdomen was swollen an angry red color where the outer wounds were as if she had been itching it. I applied chakra to the area causing the cells to regenerate and close the wounds. She held her breath in discomfort, probably trying badly not to itch the healing skin as I worked.

I sat back on my heels and then pulled her to a sitting position. Then I turned to her splinted arm, I infused it with chakra causing the bone to heal slightly faster. This would allow her to move her arm about gently so long as she didn't fight.

Koneko's nose was better today if still red and swollen. I touched it gently and she flinched a little as she felt the chakra pour into the healing tissue. When I was done, it looked less like she had a healing broken nose and more like she'd fallen down and hit her face on the ground. It was still a little red from the fast healing but no one would ever guess at first glance that it had been broken.

Tatsumaki just grinned and said he was fine, though I could see the lumps on his forehead were the color of ripe plums and had to be giving him a headache.

"Good thing you got a head like a rock." I teased poking him in the shoulder. I stood and headed out of the camp to take care of my morning ritual. No one followed, thankfully.

When I returned every one was sitting around the fire. Albeit Sasuke was isolated on his own little log on one side and the camp was silent. At least no one was fighting.

I ate some rice and soup they had made then pulled out a roll of bandages and beginning to pull my hair back into a tight French braid. I ripped off a short piece of the bandage and tied the end of my hair with it before tucking it inside the back of my uniform once more. Everyone was watching me; even Sasuke was shooting looks my way while trying to pretend that he wasn't. I looked behind me but there wasn't anyone there. Finally I couldn't take it anymore.

"What are you all looking at me for?" My teammates just started looking everywhere but at me and said nothing, however Sasuke looked directly at me as if waiting for me to ask him specifically. "What!" I snapped at him.

"You have a bite mark on your neck." He said calmly staring at me, probably assessing whether or not it had come from Itachi or someone else. I pulled my pack over and rummaged through it for the signaling mirror. I held the small round mirror up and checked both sides of my neck, sure enough there were reddened teeth marks on my neck. I guess they hadn't been visible with my hair still down around my face but now that my hair was back they were really visible. I touched them in horror. When had it happened? Was it sometime during the fight yesterday? Or had it happened sometime during the night when I was dead to the world? It was definitely human so it had to be Itachi, unless…

"Kou-kun, did you bite me while I was sleeping?" I asked playfully watching as he turned red and started stammering that he would never. I just laughed and we changed the subject.


	16. Chapter 16

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Chapter 16

The Unplanned Battle pt. 4

We walked slowly on the ground, even with the healing I had provided for Haruko and Kou they were still sore and I didn't want to push them.

It didn't take too long to get to the flat plain just outside the woods. The grass gleamed in the sun and I let the breeze play on my face for a moment before turning to Sasuke.

"I'll give you a few minutes; I'll be over here warming up." I said then turned and walked fifty feet away to prepare. I made sure to put some trees in between us, I didn't want him watching my moves with his sharingan and either copying them or being able to predict them.

As soon as I was out of sight I set my bag on the grass and pulled out another roll of gauze. I redressed my wound and forced some more chakra into it. Then I took the rest of the gauze and wound it around my eyes until I was effectively blindfolded and couldn't see anything. I grabbed my mask and put it on to cover up the blind fold, hopefully he wouldn't notice the blindfold. But so long as we were just going to be doing a taijutsu battle I preferred to blindfold myself – except against Lee no way would I blindfold myself while fighting against him. I stepped away from my bag and moved through some elementary warm ups. I let my senses move inwards to determine that my chakra was flowing smoothly throughout my body once more, and to center my inner balance and timing to align with my outer thoughts and movements. I then stretched and limbered up my muscles so that I could be as flexible as possible during the fight. After a few minutes I walked back to my pack and picked it up walking back around the trees to where my opponent was.

I could feel him standing there just vibrating with readiness as he waited for me.

"I just want you to remember the terms of our deal." I said turning toward Sasuke. "Your goal if you can is to get me to the point where I will admit defeat. If this occurs, I will tell you what you want to know and then some." I paused smiling and wondering how this would end up, he was a strong opponent after all. "As a side note, even if you can knock me out, that won't get you anywhere. Now as I'm pretty sure that you've never in your life verbally admitted defeat, my objective is to make it physically impossible for you to fight anymore, when you get to the part where you are incapable of fighting anymore I win and you come back to the village willingly to accept your punishment, on top of that you are required to allow Naruto and I to help you with your revenge." I paused for the effect; I was getting to be just as dramatic as Gai and Lee.

"This is a strait taijutsu fight. That means no jutsu or chakra use of any kind and that means you don't get to use your sharingan." I threw my pack toward the group of chakra signatures to my left. My subordinates were just standing there watching.

"You never mentioned last night not being able to use my sharingan!" Sasuke yelled, I could sense his chakra as he raised his fist pointing it at me.

"So? I specified no chakra, are you telling me you don't think you can win without it?" I asked, knowing he wouldn't take it well.

"I can and will win without it, but you didn't mention that last night." I walked toward the center of the field.

"So you have agreed to the conditions of the fight?" I called back over my left shoulder.

"You know I did." He replied following me.

"Then let's begin." I said, jumping away from him five more feet so that we were facing over the distance of about fifteen feet. And I waited for him to move, and waited, and waited some more. He hadn't moved except to crouch, readying himself for an attack. But I wasn't going to attack; I would wait all day if I had to.

But I didn't have much longer to wait, he started forward, very light on his feet he came in high as I spun out under the hit and landed a punch on his side before jumping into the air and performing Konoha's whirlwind. I missed my second hit and as I dropped back down I felt him coming in from my right. I grabbed his outstretched ankle and twisted it while thrusting him to the ground. As I did I used quick snapping motion with two of my fingers as I plunged them into a pressure point on his leg just below the knee. I dropped his leg and jumped back five feet.

"What the hell did you do to my leg?" He shouted as he tried to stand on his numb calf. I smirked before answering.

"Gee it looks like you're going to be as noisy as Naruto today." I mocked him before giving him a partial answer. "I am a medic-nin and a hunter-nin." I replied. "I know things about the body you could only imagine." I baited him and then fell silent.

He stumbled forward pushing mostly with his left leg due to what I had done to his right. Remarkably he was still able to run at me with a good amount of speed, though not as fast as before.

He swung his right arm in and I grabbed it and did the same to his bicep as he twisted away and landed a hard kick to my back that sent me flying away.

I rolled to my feet standing in a crouch waiting for him. My back ached. Who would have thought he would fight so well even after I had cut off most of the blood flow to his leg? And that blow had really hurt; I was going to have a huge bruise there tomorrow.

I felt him panting less than thirty feet away. He was holding his arm where he could no longer use it. As a hunter-nin I had learned how to kill and incapacitate my targets using the smallest amount of energy possible. If you hit two particular pressure points in the neck precisely your target won't be giving you any more trouble for a while especially if your goal is to capture rather than kill, which I preferred most of the time.

He ran at me kicking out with his right leg, I grabbed it and pulled it past me using his body and my rock solid stance against him as I stepped in and body slammed him to the ground. But he grabbed me around the waist as he fell and pulled me under him trying to use his weight and strength against me since he had a severe handicap now.

I brought my hands together and smashed them into his nose. I could feel his entire body jerking as he flinched and a couple drops of blood splattered onto my mask. His right arm was practically useless at his side but he still had me pinned to the ground with his left. I had no idea what he had in mind but I wrapped my legs around his waist as I grabbed his right arm and pushed him to the side and face down onto the ground switching places with him I sat straddling his back with his right arm up in between his shoulder blades. He didn't make a sound, not because he was being tough but because he couldn't feel anything in that arm. I was about to jab at the pressure points in his left arm when he suddenly pushed off the ground with surprising speed forcing us high into the air where he twisted his body so that he would land on top of mine crushing me into the ground beneath him.

I couldn't completely avoid the blow, but I twisted so that when we hit the ground I only felt the back of his knees slam into my back instead of his entire body weigh like he'd meant to. But he'd hit me again in the same place his previous blow had landed.

I rolled free of his legs and crouched five feet away and listened to him panting and getting to his feet. I waited. Forcing my breathing to slow and pushing away the swirling thought I emptied my head to work through reaction. But he just stood there, and I realized that he must be waiting for me to come to him this time as he probably knew it was pointless to run at me in his condition.

I ran at him in and arc heading for his right side, he pulled back his left arm to swing and I spun around to his left side, grabbing his arm and pulling him off balance I jabbed twice into this arm once into the bicep and a second time in the wrist. I then spun down and swept his feet out from under him, only to jump up and plant a two foot kick into his chest when he jumped up to avoid it.

He went flying backwards and was unable to catch himself to land safely as his arms now swung uselessly at his sides. He lay there panting on the ground for one second before using his legs to pull himself up and back to his feet. He could still use his legs to a certain degree and he stepped wide and arched his body to swing himself into the kick. He spun around in the air and I had to block his kicks with my arm guards. As gravity brought him back to the ground he crouched and thrust himself forward into my unprotected abdomen throwing us backwards to roll and then sprawl on the ground. I rolled free and recovered my feet to perform a counterattack. I jumped on his back and jabbed my fingers into the calf of his left leg. He couldn't move anything but his right leg now, making it impossible for him to get up.


	17. Chapter 17

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Chapter 17

The Unplanned Battle pt. 5

I stood and faced Sasuke as he struggled with his own body. He really hadn't understood. As a medic-nin I was taught everything about healing the body where to touch to ease pain and what to touch to stop blood flow. As a hunter-nin I had extensive training in how to harm the body of a fellow ninja by learning about and memorizing where every tenketsu, and pressure point were located on the human body. I sighed in relief and knelt by his head.

"You can't even get up, the fight is over." I said to him. "But before I unbind your limbs I would like you to say that you agree to this loss."

"Why? You need me to be even more humiliated than I already am? Damn you Sakura!"

"No, you simply lost today, and this was a good training exercise for me as well. But you forget, while you've been gone I was trained by Godaime Hokage, I've also fought Itachi several times, not to mention for the last few years I've had rotating anbu training partners even when I was just a chuunin. There really isn't any shame in losing to me, I simply have different training. And while I will never be as powerful as you or Itachi, I'd like to think that my knowledge allows me to be superior to the average ninja."

"I have been training under the legendary Sannen Orochimaru, and I'm one of the only Uchiha that was able to get the Mangekyou sharingan. I refuse to believe that I am inferior to you or that I've been beaten." I just sighed and grasped my mask speaking before I lifted it.

"If this had been a full on ninjutsu battle, I'm sure that the situation right now would be different, but as it is it's much worse than you think, Uchiha." I heard collective gasps from my subordinates as I pulled the mask loose to reveal the blindfold. I unwound my eyes and blinked as I opened them to the fading light around us before looking down at him. His eyes were wide in disbelief. "Do you yield this fight?" I asked staring down at him making my voice sound cold and hard.

"Yes." He whispered. "Yes, I admit defeat."

I rolled him over to access his pressure points once more and swiftly yet carefully pressed the counter pressure point and massaged the area to get the blood flowing properly again. I spotted him watching me with his sharingan on. I paused a moment.

"Those are only the counter pressure points for the blood flow." I tried to explain. "If you pushed these pressure points, one of three things can or will happen. One, absolutely nothing. If you don't hit it precisely with enough pressure nothing will happen. Two, If hit too hard you could cause muscle failure in which the ligaments and muscles will spasm so rapidly that they can tear themselves from the bone itself. Three, when used without being a counterpoint you will actually increase blood flow and chakra into that area of the body which would eventually kill the person if left untended, but could also lead to an effect similar to the opening of one or more chakra gates which would allow the person total and complete use of their body and chakra without restraint. So I don't recommend the use these on yourself or others until and unless you know what you're doing." I stopped talking at that point and finished massaging blood flow back into his left leg. I moved to his arms and I could feel him watching me again. I just sighed and massaged his arm to return feeling quicker. I leaned over and grabbed his left arm and did the same.

"Why can't I move yet if you released them?" He asked as he tried to move his arms to sit up.

"You'll need to give them a few more minutes, that's why I massaged them, it helps the blood flow back to your arms and gets it flowing normally again." He just grimaced and I slid my arm behind his shoulder and pulled his right arm over my shoulder to help him sit up, and then stand slowly and shakily. I helped him over to our comrades who now seemed to have forgotten all about the beating he gave them the day before. There nothin' like watching the enemy that kicked your ass the day before get trounced by someone in a blindfold to inspire goodwill and foster new friendships. At least now that they thought he had been thoroughly humiliated that is, I could see some of the sly grins on their faces.

"Man! I can't believe he lasted a whole hour against the Captain in a one on one taijutsu fight!" Haruko exclaimed in admiration. "Man you gotta teach me that move you did when she was on your back and you flipped her and…"

"Yeah, but I'd like to know how he managed to even move his leg after she numbed it up from the knee down." Koneko put in while I rested and got a drink for the both of us. I drank from my canteen and wiped sweat from my forehead. I handed the canteen to Sasuke and he took it hesitantly still flexing and clenching his fists. Either he did it because he was angry at being beaten or to get the feel back into them. He absently raised the water bottle to his mouth drinking deeply. I watched him as we sat side by side and wondered if things could possibly go back to the way they were. But I knew it was a silly thought, it was impossible. I looked across the clearing toward Konoha where we'd head after a short break.

I felt a sudden tingle on the back of my neck and stood up. It raised the hair on my arms, and I had to refrain from running my hands over them as I stood trying to see, hear or sense whatever was out there. I had the very bad feeling that it was Itachi; I remembered having the same exact feeling right before he ambushed me in my own bedroom.

"We need to get moving guys. Kou, Tatsumaki, help Sasuke while Koneko and I get Haruko." I slung my pack over my shoulder and grabbed one of Haruko's arms pulling her to her feet and Koneko slid in under the other arm. We'd move faster this way.

"What's wrong Captain?" Koneko asked as we ran through the trees supporting most of Haruko's weight.

"Nothing yet, I just felt uneasy all of a sudden. And the last time I had that feeling Itachi attacked me in my own bedroom." I paused as I continued trying to sense throughout the area, but I couldn't feel anything. "So I don't even know if anything is wrong, but I'd rather not take the chance since none of us are in good enough shape right now to fight a tough enemy seriously."

"I agree." I heard the muffled voice from behind as Sasuke put in his two cents. That came from perhaps just losing against me or maybe just the fact that he still couldn't really move his body well. Fortunately we were only about five miles outside of Konoha. But if Itachi wanted to attack, he would do it whether or not we were close to Konoha, it wouldn't matter. And we would all be just as dead, because I really couldn't fight right now. My chakra was still low from healing this morning and the fighting yesterday. I wouldn't be able to hold him off, Sasuke would feel obligated to jump in again, only he'd get himself killed this time.

I thought all of these thoughts on the way back to Konoha, and still I wondered what would happen when we got back.

We slowed our pace a bit as we neared Konoha. Sasuke was finally able to let go of Kou and Tatsumaki to run on his own, so we let him carry Haruko as a sort of penance for injuring her in the first place. I put my mask back on before we went through the gates and we went straight to the hospital. But even as we went I felt the weight of the stares as one by one, they noticed the younger Uchiha was with us. By the time we reached Konoha Hospital we had a crowd and as we pushed through the doors, I saw Tsunade standing in front of the main desk trying to talk to a young couple. She looked up started, words forming.

"What is going on here?" Then she spotted Sasuke carrying Haruko, her eyes narrowed on the man but she didn't say anything except to the people trying to crowd around in behind us.

"All of you, this is not a theatre but a hospital, so unless you have business here, GET OUT!" She finished up with a shout, causing the crowd to disperse and rush out the doors in fear of her wrath. "Bring the girl in here and set her on the table." Tsunade motioned for us to follow her into the closest empty examining room. We all crowded in and shut the door on the curious faces of the nurses outside.

"Uchiha, Sasuke. I certainly didn't think to find you among the party when they returned from their mission." She switched her gaze to me and asked, "Does this mean you were successful?"

I just nodded and motioned to Kou who held out the box to the Hokage. Then he stepped back to stand by Haruko who was sitting up on the exam table.

Tsunade just looked at the box for a moment before opening it and looking at the object inside. I must admit, it looked a little like a white cigar in there wrapped up so small with nothing showing but the sheet itself and a few bulges here and there that could only have been elbows and feet. The strangest thing happened then; a solitary tear slipped out of Tsunade's eye and rolled down her cheek, just one tear, which she quickly wiped away before tucking the box into her coat pocket. She turned to Haruko and had her lay back on the table stripping her efficiently of her outer apparel leaving her lying there in only the bandages that she always wrapped around her chest to hold her breasts in place (I had been unable to convince her of the superiority of the chakra infused bra that I wore).

Tsunade placed one hand on her forehead and the other on the remainder of the stomach wound. "Hmm, pretty good field work Sakura, there's only a few places that could use any real work." Haruko had her eyes squeezed shut, probably in embarrassment at baring herself to everyone. I knew I would be. "I'll just take care of those problem areas now and have Haruko stay the night for observation."

"Oh, no." Haruko moaned. "Godaime I'm just fine, why don't I just come back tomorrow sometime…" She begged piteously but I interrupted before Tsunade could reply.

"Tsunade Kou also has some cracked ribs after you're done with Haruko." Tsunade just nodded as she continued to concentrate on Haruko.

"If you're going to tell on me, I'm going to tell on you, Sakura-sama." Kou threatened. "Godaime-sama Haruno-san took a sword through her shoulder during the fight with Orochimaru."

"You rat!" I exclaimed, playfully whacking him in the arm

"Ow, Sakura-sama, I'm a wounded man here. You should be gentler with me." He returned with that playfully evil glint in his eye. We all laughed at the comment except for Sasuke and Tsunade, who was still concentrating her chakra. It didn't take long though and Tsunade motioned me forward. I took off my vest as I sat on the table along with the mesh shirt leaving only my sports bra.

"It went all the way through I see, and the wound has reopened since you bound it." Tsunade said in a grim tone, for some reason she had this strange ability to assess the damage without even removing the bandages sometimes. I frowned at that too, I had reopened the wound twice? Even with an extra chakra infusion? "Lean over the table so that I can touch the back of your shoulder, Sakura." I slid off the table and bent down so that my elbows rested there comfortably. "I'm going to have to cut away the bindings here, oops."

I felt a draft as the bra and bindings fell away and my breasts burst forth. I gasped in horror and grabbed for my outer armor to cover myself with.

"Holy Shit Sake', I never knew you had breasts!" Haruko yelled. I looked up and grimaced. Koneko and Haruko had covered Kou's and Tatsumaki's eyes but Sasuke had no one to prevent him, he simply stood there his mouth and eyes wide a crimson blush spreading slowly across his features before turning quickly to face away from me.

"Tsunade-sama, if I find out you did that on purpose, I swear to you I'll make sure you can't find where you hid your sake' for a month." Tsunade just covered her mouth and laughed as she pressed her hand over the wound and started work. I could feel her chakra start pouring into the wound only to pause and then continue.

"Have you tried to heal this already, Sakura?" She asked her voice carefully empty.

"Yes, right after we got out of the complex, and then again after it broke open in the fight with- well that'll be in the report, but I infused it this morning as well so I was surprised that you said it had broken open again." I glanced back over my shoulder at her, "You know I can't sense the wounds in myself as well as in others Shishou. What's wrong with it?" I asked

"Kusanagi has partially cauterized this wound and it went through your shoulder blade, we're going to have to call in the bone and burn specialists for you again." I flinched and dropped my head to the cushy table.

"Not again." I moaned. The groaning broke off as I tried to smother myself in the vinyl table cushion, surely that would be a better way to die…


	18. Chapter 18

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Chapter 18

Warm Welcome

"Don't worry; it won't be so bad this time with a wound as small as this." She said trying to cheer me up. I just turned my back on the crowd. I discarded the idea of putting my mesh undershirt back on without my bra. It was uncomfortable to have the netting slide around over my bare nipples. So instead I just pulled my uniform top back on and was quickly glad that I hadn't bothered trying with the mesh, unfortunately the leather was so tight now without the bra to bind my breasts back that unless I kept one arm constantly over my chest, you could see my nipples. I just gritted my teeth while Inner Sakura growled and shouted curses at her. I glared at her as I replied, to that comment.

"I don't care how small it is, I remember exactly how bad that hurt the last time I had bone repaired, I was high on pain meds the entire time and I still nearly lost my mind." I blew my bangs out of my face and reached for the remnants of my bra. A straight cut all the way through, I glowered at Tsunade. Maybe I should make it two months of her not being able to find her sake'.

"Alright Kou up on the table." Tsunade said moving right along as I reached up and grabbed the rest of my clothing. She patted the cushioned surface and he hopped up on the table laying down and sliding his shirt up to expose the expanse of his chest covered in barely healed purple and blue bruises.

Ordinarily I would have stayed to watch Tsunade work and lend support to my team as they lay there in pain, but I heard a familiar voice in the hallway and Kou wasn't very high on my popularity list right now as I was going to have to go through another painful procedure due to him tattling on me. I didn't really blame him but I didn't want to watch anymore so I pushed my way past the others and moved to the door before Lee burst through and got blasted back out by Tsunade.

I opened the door just enough to stick my head out a bit. Lee was surrounded by three nurses who were attempting to detain him by standing in front of him and latching onto his arms, he just stood there in his standard green training gear, his tall rangy form towered over them. He didn't struggle, he was strong and fast, if he'd wanted to he could sweep them all away with one small wave of his arm. They would hit the wall next to them and not even know what hit them. I'd once taken a half-serious hit like that from him and I thought a house had been dropped on my head. But he was a gentle giant, and didn't like to use force unless training or on a mission.

"I heard that Sakura has returned from her mission and that she is here, I will burst forth with the righteous spirit of youth if you do not lead me to her!" Lee shouted in his standard nice guy pose as he threatened them, the nurses scattered in three different directions. I just giggled, he looked up and charged forward in delight. I meant to stay in the room with the door shielding me from view but he grabbed my hand and pulled me forward clutching me almost desperately against him in a bear hug he embraced me tightly to his muscular chest so solidly that I made that little eep noise that only girls seem to do as he crushed the air out of my body.

I couldn't really blame him though, he'd been worried ever since I'd told him about the mission. He even went so far as to beg the Hokage to be allowed to go along, stating once again that he had promised to protect me until his own death. We'd only been dating for a few months but I'd told him to stop saying my name with the honorific, we'd known each other forever and it didn't feel right for him to call me with a san at the end of my name. I pulled back a little after giving him a quick peck on the mouth. Before pulling back to admire his handsome face, I'd finally convinced him to wax and pluck his eyebrows and now that he had matured a little and you could see his face better and you could see that he was actually very masculine and handsome. But I wrinkled my nose at the smell.

"You've just come from training haven't you?" I asked, smelling the perspiration and realizing that his workout suit was soaked with his sweat.

"Ah, sorry about that." He said pulling away and then freezing in place his eyes popping wide open in shock as he saw my top and most likely my nipples too. I allowed him to press back in against me, and not just to hide, I liked the feel of his hard chest against my supple curves. It made me feel a little bit more feminine after my time away camping and killing. With him I could just be the sensitive woman I always wanted to be, sexy, seductive, playful, sad, happy, angry, it didn't matter, all that I was he accepted willingly without looking down on me and thinking that I was weak because of it. So I let him hold me like that for a minute giving him a nice slow kiss. But I felt the need to break the kiss all too soon, I had other responsibilities right now and this would need to wait.

"Lee, I've gotta get back in there before Tsunade thinks I've run away from treatment, but I'll see you later when we're done giving our report."

"You're wounded?" He asked frantically searching me until he found the still uncovered wound through my shoulder, and strangely while it still hurt it was barely noticeable when I wasn't thinking about it or touching it. He immediately made the usual exclamations of getting me help right away picking me up in his arms as if to run away somewhere with me. I laughed and squirmed around in his arms forcing him to put me down or drop me.

"It's nothing really. It'll be all better real soon. I just need to see the bone and burn specialists. So don't worry." I gave him another smile, but he was still frowning at me in concern.

"Specialists, that means it's really bad though!" He said taking my hands again. I could hear the urgency in his voice, he really worried about me far too much. One of these days he was going to give himself an aneurism or heart attack, and it would probably be just because I stubbed my toe or something.

"Lee," I said sternly before he got carried away again. "I'm fine, it's not a bad wound, and it just needs special handling." I backed up and turned back to the door as it opened. Everyone that had crowded into the small room began spilling out as Tsunade barreled out and caught my wrist, grabbing me and dragging me down the hall leading me toward the specialist treatment section of the hospital. Lee stared after me forlornly until he spotted Sasuke following along behind us and glared jealously at the other man's back. But the rest of the team just waved to me and walked in the direction of the exit. Apparently Haruko had convinced Tsunade that she was well enough to be a home patient. So it looked like I was the only one who was going to be stuck overnight.

"Traitors!" I shouted down the hallway at them, Haruko blew me a kiss and then stuck her tongue out at me as I was pulled around the corner and shoved into the elevator. As soon as the doors closed Tsunade turned to face me an angry look on her face.

"So, I hear that you fought with Uchiha Itachi again." Her voice was quiet, calm, and deadly. I fought back the urge to swallow nervously.

"Yeah, we both knew it was coming, his pattern is once every couple months or so, there wasn't really anything that I could have done."

"You could have allowed your people to help you rather than trying to take him on by yourself, yet again Haruno." I winced, she only called me Haruno when she was really angry.

"This team was specifically assembled to battle Orochimaru and company, not Itachi and company. They wouldn't have stood a chance, and we'd all have gotten ourselves killed. I was the only one on the team with the experience and ability to fight him. Sacrificing one life to save the other five is a positive thing in my head. Besides he was after me, I'd rather not have him go through people to have to get to me and I'm not exactly weak either. Not to mention if I lived I wouldn't be able to live with the guilt of letting others die trying to protect me."

"Fine, I trust your judgment." Her voice softer, then she asked, "Just tell me one thing, did he get in?" I felt my entire body tense up at the question as I remembered what had happened.

"Yes, but very briefly I immediately dispelled him." I replied trying not to think about it.

"Good, that's my girl." She sighed in relief ruffling my hair a bit then turned to face the opening elevator doors before once again dragging me along behind her down the hall. Sasuke trailed behind us a few feet, perhaps afraid he was going to get grabbed as well. I wondered vaguely why she was allowing him to walk about freely, even if she'd been told of the deal we'd made. Then again he was following behind us only a few steps and we were surrounded with medical personnel that would most likely be able to take him down before he could reach the exit if he tried anything. Regardless his steps continued after ours as we approached the end of the hall leading to the chief bone specialist.

I was hauled down that hall and into the bone specialists' office, where she shoved me unceremoniously down into a chair and went to look for her colleague/subordinate. So I just sat there in the dark with Sasuke, waiting for the inevitable.

"What did the Hokage mean by "did he get in", Sakura?" I looked up a little surprised by the question. I would have thought that it was obvious, unless we'd been talking about someone else, then I guess it was available to misconstrue the context and think it meant something dirty. But, come on, this was about Uchiha Itachi, what did he really think it meant?

"Sasuke the best way to explain it is for me to show you, and since your one of the few people I actually could show…" I let my voice trail off and grabbed his hand trying to pull him closer, which he resisted. "Try using your Tsukiyomi on me." I stood up since he wouldn't come to me and looked him in the eyes. He looked back into my eyes pausing for a moment before his onyx orbs bled to that beautiful red and black pinwheel form that made up the mangekyou sharingan. I was sucked under, and it felt like I was falling.


	19. Chapter 19

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Chapter 19

What She Really Wants...

I landed in the world of Tsukiyomi with a thump. I looked around, and it was strange, I wasn't tied down.

"That sure is different, Sakura." My own voice sounded in my ears and I turned to see my inner version standing over my shoulder. I stood slowly and spotted Sasuke a few feet away, just watching us.

"There…are two of you." He said in his usual monotone." Which is the real one though?" He was looking back and forth at us with his sharingan as if he thought it was a clone jutsu that he couldn't see through for some reason. I just looked at myself and Inner Sakura smirked evilly back at me before sauntering over to Sasuke.

"I've just been waiting forever, to get you in here." She said walking around him and running her hand along the back of his shoulder and brushing against him suggestively.

"Stop that you whore." I shouted at her grabbing her hand away from him. "It's bad enough what you did earlier while I was trapped and unable to do anything but I'll be damned if I allow your perverted behaviors when I can do something about it." She just pouted and pulled the hand loose.

"Oh, your no fun, I was just going to play with him a little." Then she suddenly grinned and looked back at Sasuke who was staring at us with a bewildered expression. "You want to play with me don't you?" She asked, batting her eyelashes and clasping her hands together in an impression of Naruko that we'd seen done all too often used to squeeze our breasts together and push them up making them the center of his attention. I pushed her out of the way.

"Ow, you big meenie." She said standing back up and rubbing her bottom. Though I knew it hadn't hurt her, she couldn't feel pain. "Come on, I'm lonely. It's boring without anyone to play with, and you never let Itachi come and play anymore…"

"I'd think you would understand that, moron." I said shoving her back down. "It fucking hurts to be stabbed with a katana."

"It doesn't hurt me. So what do I care." She said sticking her tongue out at me. "And besides, I always kick his ass anyway. I couldn't even play last time he had to leave so fast." She whined at me.

"That's because he was being a pervert." I glared at her, and then remembered that we weren't the only ones there. "Sorry Sasuke, I forgot about you for a minute."

"I didn't!" Inner Sakura yelled gleefully, latching onto his arm and letting her breasts brush up against him. He looked slightly alarmed.

"Quit it!" I said, kicking her away from him. She sprawled on the floor and then shot back up rocketing into me sending us sprawling to the ground. We wrestled around for a minute before I was able to throw her off.

"That's enough! What in the hell are you?" I heard Sasuke yell from the sidelines, and we paused in our fighting. "And why are the words Inner Sakura written on your forehead?"

"He doesn't understand." Inner Sakura giggled, approaching him slowly as if she were sneaking up on her prey. But then again, I felt what she was feeling and thought maybe it would be fun to just play with him a little, just a little bit. I walked behind her arousal coursing through my veins. It had nothing at all to do with the man that stood in front of me, I just wanted to play and be played with in return. I thought it was strange, but it felt too good to resist as I watched her approach him from the front and as I slid up behind him. Both our arms moved in tandem as if we had practiced this little dance. He started looking alarmed as we both pressed our unbound breasts into him on both sides. I played with his hair while she ground her pelvis into his groin pushing hard enough to force him backwards and into mine. I let out a little sigh of satisfaction and pleasure as we trapped him effectively sandwiching him between us.

"I am the core of Sakura's innermost strength and desires." She whispered into his ear as she grabbed his hand and placed in on her lower back and tried to lower it. "I am known as Inner Sakura, though Tsunade simply refers to me as the id persona. She doesn't quite understand that we aren't separate entities or personalities we are one and the same."

"So this is why Itachi is obsessed with you?" He asked breathily trying to get loose and failing miserably and then snarled. "He likes the mental three-way with you sluts."

"Oh, no." I whispered in his ear sliding my fingers deeper into his soft hair. "I'm usually chained to a cross." I blew on his neck, and felt the shiver all the way down his spine. "I can't do anything in his Tsukiyomi, and Inner Sakura spends most of the time fighting him off trying to keep me from torture." I slid my right hand down over his shoulder and along his muscular chest scratching him slightly with my finger nails.

"Yes, I kick his ass until he has to run away. He is no match for me in here." She ran her hands up the outside of his legs and slid them around to run her own fingernails up his back. "Of course, I've been in need of some attention for a while since Sakura refuses to relieve herself while on missions. Perhaps you could help me with that?" She asked brushing her face gently along his jaw. She then placed one of his hands on her breast, which he immediately jerked back when she tried to get him to massage it.

"Aw, you're no fun either." She said and I pushed back the raging hormones flooding my system long enough to pull her back from him and backed away. Then the world flashed white until I found us standing still back in the doctor's office. He immediately fell to the floor in exhaustion, a confused look on his face.

"From what I've gathered, it takes an awful lot of energy and chakra to sustain the Tsukiyomi. But I'm guessing it takes even more to use on me. Whenever Itachi's used it on me, I was always at the point of physical exhaustion and unable to counterattack immediately afterwards if he failed, and he always collapses afterwards. However when he pulls me into the Tsukiyomi I've always been restrained while Inner Sakura fights him off and forces him out." I said crouching beside him. "I owe you an apology though, I'm sorry about her, I don't have any real control over her in that world for some reason, but lately she's been able to influence me and this time I did something I wouldn't ordinarily allow her or myself to do. I really didn't mean for that to happen."

"So, you can fight off and dispel the Tsukiyomi through this id persona?" He breathed looking up at me again. He was breathing hard and leaning against the desk as if he'd just run a marathon.

"Yes, and it looks like if I'm completely loose in the Tsukiyomi…was I able to keep you from dispelling it?" He looked up at me with an expression of fear in his eyes. "If that's the case then I may be able to do the same to Itachi if I could get free, we could totally use that." I mused quietly. "Though I know I don't want to try that on him, hell I don't even think it would work." I stood up

"I never realized…" He started to say and let it trail off before trying again. "I guess I never really knew you were such a pervert Sakura." He was taunting me now that he'd recovered from the shock of meeting Inner Sakura, who was still pissed that she didn't get to at least pleasure herself while in the Tsukiyomi. Of course he was right. I'd been a closet pervert from the very beginning, as witnessed and verifiable through my "Sasuke-kun Stalker Shots" collection. A large collection of photo's that I'd managed to take when we were all still genin's on team 7. It contained photos of everyone, but mostly Sasuke. There were photo's varied in categories from sleeping to bathing – Ino had gotten some people to pay quite a bit of money for _those_ pictures…

"Everyone has needs Sasuke, even you." I would have said more but the office door opened and Tsunade barged in once more grabbing me and dragging me down the hall to operating room three.

I lay in the hospital bed cringing at the pain radiating from my shoulder now that the drugs had started to wear off. Even though the procedure had taken place hours ago, my shoulder still burned as if someone had stuck a hot poker through it repeatedly.

Sweat trickled down my face in the heat of the small room, and I threw off the thin linen sheet that was still too heavy in the oppressing heat of the night. I paused as I heard a low mumbling, turning to look I found Lee sitting in the chair next to my bed, his head lolled down against his chest in sleep. I knew he was dead to the world, after all, I'd seen some of the things he could do when he was passed out. There was no chance of me waking him up without hurting him in some way.

But watching him sleep, his chest slowly rising and falling, I felt heat gather between my legs. He had long ago changed out of his training gear and now wore a regular pair of black pants with an old blue and too tight t-shirt. The shirt wrapped around his lean muscles molding to him like a second skin, and I couldn't help but touch myself. I'd felt the need for days, but I hadn't done anything about it, not on such a dangerous team mission. I would usually take care of myself in the privacy of my own home. But as I looked at Lee and touched myself I thought.

"It's perfectly natural. Perhaps I should have him join me next time."


	20. Chapter 20

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Chapter 20

Sleepover stress

It had been a couple of days since I'd brought Sasuke back along with the corpses of Orochimaru and Kabuto. And much to my chagrin Tsunade had ordered me as part of the babysitting detail for one Uchiha Sasuke.

He was placed under a probationary period awaiting a review of his actions and the determination of whether or not he would be allowed back as a Konoha citizen let alone be allowed to become a ninja again.

The council was talking jail time, while Tsunade was trying to encourage community service, voicing that he had come back to the village of his own free will and volition. She of course was neglecting to mention the fact that I had beaten the crap out of him and that was the only reason he had. That was another reason I was stuck on this detail, that stupid bargain we'd struck.

Tsunade said that since I'd made that bargain and brought him back, and was his old teammate, I was the one who would be responsible for him and any actions he made for or against the village while he was under probation.

Needless to say, that Lee wasn't happy to hear this. Of course neither was I, it was damn frustrating being around that brooding and moody jackass.

He and the rest of the anbu team were camped out at my and Ino's apartment, which of course, pissed _her_ off a bit. So we all were a bit cranky. But it was the only thing I could do, Sasuke's apartment had been sublet to another tenant, the Uchiha compound was in disrepair and I didn't think anybody would be comfortable staying there remembering the systematic slaughter that had taken place within its walls. And in the end Ino could still become a target for Itachi to get to me if he so chose, so we camped at our place to keep an eye on Sasuke and allow me to keep some peace of mind.

We had two bedrooms and that helped a bit but we still ended up with a guard sleeping on the couch by the fire escape and front door, another under the kitchen table and if I hadn't prevented Haruko, she'd have curled up in the bathtub.

"No!" I shouted, angrily. "The window is too small for anyone to get in through in the first place, and people will want to use the bathroom in the middle of the night! You can't just turn it into your personal sleeping area!" She just grinned and bounced away with that usual playful mien. She and Tatsumaki could give Naruto a run for his money with their ability to annoy and irritate me at times. Tatsumaki was the one sleeping in the kitchen after all, I'd probably catch her in there with him later. I had my suspicions that they were seeing each other, as lately they'd been finishing each other's sentences and sneaking glances at each other over the camp fire. But they didn't say anything, so I didn't voice my suspicions.

It would be like telling Neji that Hinata had been dragged off into the woods by a serial rapist. Kou was even more protective of his sister than Neji was of his cousin. And I knew for a fact that Neji purposely stalked Hinata at times when she wasn't away on missions. Something about it being his job as a branch family member to protect the head family. 'That was probably why she volunteered for so many out of town missions', I mused to myself as I walked back to my own bedroom now that midnight disasters had hopefully been averted.

I opened the door to find Sasuke standing by the window staring out into the burgeoning night. Behind him Kou leaned lazily against my small desk. He looked relaxed the way his eyes wandered lazily around the room and only came to rest on the Uchiha every so often. They both glanced up when I came in but didn't say anything.

Sasuke had requested personally to stay in my room with me in case Itachi came in the night. So of course that was why Kou was in here as well, he didn't fully trust him, not that I blamed him. But they were both going to be sleeping on the floor. Sasuke had obviously claimed the floor space underneath the window.

I just sighed and grabbed some shorts and an oversized t-shirt from my dresser, I wouldn't be sleeping naked with everybody here. I grabbed the towel I'd hung over my closet door and threw it across my shoulder before heading back out and into the bathroom. Ino was in the living room talking with Koneko, but she stopped when she saw me heading to the bathroom.

"Hey, I'll join you!" She said quickly and darted off to her bedroom. I just wrinkled my forehead in slight confusion, did that mean she was going to hop in the shower with me? It wasn't like we had a huge tub or anything. And we hadn't shared a bathtub since we were kids on a sleepover at the age of eight. That was the last time we could fit into the tub together as far as I could remember. But I just shrugged my shoulders and headed to the bathroom.

I set my stuff down on the toilet top and started the water, while I waited for it to warm up I stripped out of my medic uniform. I sighed in frustration as I had to undo the bandages that wrapped around my breasts, I hadn't been able to replace my chakra bra yet since I'd spent the last couple days in the hospital and then I'd been dragged in front of the Hokage and even the council to go over the mission report and Sasuke's probation hearing. I couldn't even begin to imagine how I looked, let alone smelled…

I'd only been able to get away in the end because Tsunade thought it best that I get some real rest, the irony of the situation was that she had ordered me to watch him at the same time. I probably wouldn't be getting much rest, the way I saw it.

I'd just unraveled the last of the bandages when Ino slid quietly into the room. She smirked and set her own clothes down next to the sink.

"So, how do you feel about finally having 'Sasuke-kun' in your bedroom?" She grinned evilly at me, she probably knew exactly how I felt about the situation.

"You know damn well that if I had the choice he'd be in your bedroom." I stuck my tongue out at her, childish but I didn't care.

"I'm sure that Lee is just ecstatic about the whole arrangement, wasn't that him at the hospital earlier asking to be allowed to spend the night too?" I grit my teeth.

"And wasn't he accompanied by you're boyfriends?" I said back icily. "Chouji and Shikamarou didn't look too pleased with the whole thing, either. Are they afraid Sasuke with sweep you off your feet and that you'll no longer have the problem of deciding which one of them you want to settle down with?" I grinned evilly back at her scowling face.

"At least I can say that my boyfriends worry for a reason." She shot back as we stepped into the shower. "And it's not as if you've ever had two boyfriends at once, unless you count Itachi stalking you while you date Lee." I made a face and wet my hair down under the tap.

"I do not consider Itachi as a boyfriend, I consider him a crazy-psychopathic stalker. Lee is my boyfriend, and besides, you didn't realize it but when I first began seeing Lee, I was also dating Kiba!"

"You never told me you'd gone out with dog boy! Ooh, did he try to hump your leg?" She grinned and squeezed some flowery scented shampoo into her palm and started massaging it into her long blond hair. I just grinned and picked up my shaver, it had been awhile since I'd shaved and my arm pits were starting to get bushy. I hated the extra sweat and odor that caused.

"No, but I liked Akamaru better than I liked him so I figured the relationship just couldn't go anywhere." I laughed thinking about the amount of time I'd spent playing with that gigantic puppy. "Plus he never went anywhere without his little sidekick. He even brought him on our dates, and he's just like Naruto, he only ever took me to places like Ichiraku where Akamaru could go or wait nearby without being out of sight. If he ever settles down with a girl I'll be extremely surprised!" We both giggled a little at that.

"But he did have a bit of a romantic side, there was one time when he'd planned a whole day where we went to a quiet park and made a picnic lunch for us, it was sweet the way he tried to 'help' me play Frisbee with Akamaru."

"Ooh, sounds like you miss him." She said deviously as she rinsed her hair and grabbed the conditioner. "Maybe I should tell him and Sasuke just how much you want their hot- Ow!" I whacked her in the side of the head with the conditioner bottle that she had in her hand.

"I am perfectly happy with Lee-kun, thank-you-very-much!" I hissed waving the razor threateningly. "And don't think you're the only one that can play that game, Ino-pig! I'll go tell Chouji that you still think he's fat and tell Shikamarou that you don't really enjoy going cloud watching with him!"

"Shut up, forehead girl! I was only joking around, geez you take things so personally anymore! And get that out of my face!" She yelled at me shoving the hand with the razor away.

"Hey, if you're going to say crap like that, you should expect it in return pig!" But I went back to shaving and she went back to her hair. We stayed silent for a while before Ino broke the silence once more.

"So you're really happy with that green jump suited, overly energetic freak-guy?" She asked almost tentatively as if testing the waters.

"Lee-kun is fun, and you wouldn't realize it from the way he is but he's really a very serious guy. He's passionate about everything he does-"

"Passionate, eh? Why didn't you let him spend the night then?" Ino was smirking at me, I just grinned back at her.

"Passionate!" I shouted gleefully at her. "And he's not like certain lazy boyfriends that I could mention. He's chivalrous and giving, he's lean solid muscle with the stamina of a-"

"Okay, okay!" Ino shouted putting her hands over her ears. "No more about his stamina! I don't want to even think about that! Argh! I totally don't ever wanna picture that freak naked!" She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head side to side as if trying to shake the images out of her brain.

"Oh, come on! Have you seen his body, you can't tell me you don't wanna run your tongue all over-"

"Nooooo, shut up already! Don't say anymore!" She shrieked. I just giggled as she glared at me. She was quick to hop out of the shower. I turned off the water, it was getting cool anyways, and grabbed my towel drying off before following her example.

"I'm scarred for life." Ino muttered under her breath as she pulled on a silky night dress. Not particularly revealing, but sexy none-the-less. The lilac colored silk material pooled around her feet and had a white tie like the obi on a kimono around the waist. It made her look sexy and elegant at the same time. I raised an eyebrow at her attire.

"It's an awful hot night to be wearing something like that." I smirked at her as she turned to leave. "Unless of course, you don't plan to be wearing it that long. You sure you don't wanna bunk in with Sasu-ke-kun?" I enunciated all the syllables in his name slowly and used the old honorific we'd used when we still had crushes on him as children. I got the reaction I'd expected when her cheeks turned pink with a little blush.

"I am just trying to look nice while we have all this company! You're more than welcome to your Uchiha stalker and 'roomie'. Hey if Itachi shows up you can have a little three-way Uchiha fest." She suggested smiling evilly at me and stormed out of the bathroom, her nose in the air finally having gotten the last word.

"You mean Uchiha-cest." I muttered to myself, if Itachi showed up I planned to lock him in the closet with his younger brother.


	21. Chapter 21

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Chapter 21

You're not ready…Yet

I was sitting up on the rooftop of our apartment building later that evening relishing the few moments of rare solitude that I could get before going back down to my over populated apartment. I sat there just thinking and staring at the starry night sky. It was beautiful. It was a shame that I couldn't see more of it from inside Konoha's walls. The sound of the metal roof door opening and shutting was heard, but I just ignored it.

Sasuke leaned down next to my ear before speaking.

"Mind if I join you?" He asked in that gravelly voice of his. His tone never changed, he could just as easily have been talking about brutally bludgeoning someone to death or asking someone to pass the salt. Actually he probably would have sounded livelier if he was talking about killing someone.

"Sure, but I've only got the one chair up here, and I already claimed it." I answered looking back up at the sky. I sighed and leaned my head against the back of the chair and listened as he settled himself cross-legged on the rough stones of the roof next to me. "So what did you want to talk about?" I asked him as he sat there next to me in silence. I was kind of surprised that he'd sought me out in the first place. He didn't look at me, he just stared out at the rest of the houses below us looking over the home village he hadn't seen in years.

"I wanted to talk about how you became Anbu, I know I don't have to be a jounin to become an Anbu since Itachi went straight from chuunin to Anbu." He said finally breaking the silence. It caused me to chuckle slightly and he gave me that angry look that he used to reserve only for Naruto.

"I'm sorry, but it hasn't even been determined whether or not their going to reinstate you as a ninja and you're already trying to gain ranks." I chuckled softly some more as he glared at me.

"It would be a waste if they didn't allow me to be a ninja with my bloodlimit. Especially since I know they miss the strength and prestige that the village got from the Uchiha clan. If they won't allow me to be a ninja anymore I simply won't rebuild the clan, and they'd regret that decision." I glanced down at the youngest Uchiha in something akin to suspicion. I hadn't ever heard him speak more than a few sentences at a time, and they'd never revealed much about the boy that I'd thought I was in love with.

But these few sentences revealed much more about him than I'd ever imagined possible, it also surprised me that he spoke. Usually he would just shrug and say "Hn" in response to whatever Naruto or I said.

"You're probably right, they'll probably think of something else to do to you. But in life there are no guarantees. Even if they decide to reinstate you as a Konoha ninja you'll still only be ranked as a genin." He looked up at me in an expression of 'almost surprise'.

"That's right." He said un-emotionally. "I didn't pass the chuunin exam, but I can do that just fine.

"You'd need to find two other genin's willing to team up with you Sasuke, and that isn't going to be easy. Not with all the people who think of you as a traitor. Parents aren't going to want their children anywhere near you, and the genin's will already be in teams of three. So unless you can find a team where someone's already passed the exam and they need a third simply to take the exam then you're SOL." He just gave me a dirty look.

"Hey, I'm just telling you how it's going to be. It won't be as easy as you think." We sat there in silence for a moment before I spoke again. "Also, I'm pretty sure that you can't go from genin to Anbu. I've never heard of anything like that before." I mused to myself

"Just because you've never heard of it before doesn't mean it can't happen." He muttered angrily. "Either way, I still want to know how _you_ became an Anbu Captain and Hunter-nin." I was only slightly offended by the way he stressed the word 'you'. That was just Sasuke, he thought he was the hottest shit to ever grace Konoha with his presence. So instead I just sighed and began speaking, I didn't care one way or the other, he wasn't going to Anbu right away even should they allow him back.

"First off, my being an anbu Captain is only a technicality. When you're achieve hunter-nin your rank and pay automatically becomes equivalent to that of a anbu Captain, but a real anbu Captain is a member of anbu that is given the charge of their own squad, I've never been gifted with my own team. I get called 'Captain' only when I'm in charge of lower ranking anbu squads. Next, it's not like becoming a chuunin or a jounin." I said this while looking out over Konoha and remembering my trials up the ranks to get where I was not, not bothering to face him for our conversation. "You don't just take an exam pass and suddenly you're an Anbu, nope, doesn't work that way." I stood and walked to the edge of the roof and sat down on the ledge letting my feet just dangle over the side. "For the chuunin exam, you have to be recommended by you're jounin instructor. To take the Jounin exam you have to receive permission from the Hokage. But to take the Anbu exam you have to get a letter of recommendation from a member of Anbu. And before you ask – no, I won't recommend you – you're not ready yet." I pointed at him and waved my finger at him to emphasize that I wouldn't recommend him before continuing with my speech. "Kakashi might be willing to if you handle it right, but most likely he'll tell you no. The actual exam is completely different from the chuunin and jounin exams. There are three, at least for me, tasks to complete, actual missions for Konoha. If you successfully complete those you can move on to the six week training course."

"Actual missions for an exam? What kind of missions?" He asked sounding curious. "What were you're missions?"

I just thought about it for a moment, smiling faintly. "Well, it's different for everyone, so I guess it'd be okay to tell you about some of mine. You may not want to hear about it though." I said grinning. "I know Naruto didn't."

I'd spent most of the day with Koneko and Tatsumaki training to improve my speed and natural strength, along with trying to increase my low chakra reserves some more. Kou and Haruko had the day off, but I saw them running down the street towards us and paused in my training long enough for Koneko to catch me in the jaw with a sharp jab. I quickly brought my attention back to the training and caught her fist when she brought it around again and using a sliding motion, ducked under her outstretched arm and brought it around her back and toppled her to the ground planning to end up with me sitting on her back. But she twisted and rolled free as we began to circle one another again our arms extended and ready to grapple.

It wasn't much of a match without the blindfold but then again we were using ninjutsu and genjutsu. Tatsumaki had yet to wake up after I'd KO'd him. Koneko was a different story though, while I did that she'd cast a genjutsu on me making me think that he'd broken my legs. It had taken me a few minutes just to realize that I was in a genjutsu in the first place, genjutsu was her specialty for a reason after all. Those fake broken legs hurt like a son-of-a-bitch.

I was hit several times before I was able to release the jutsu and then stumbled and fell on my face once I had. So when I got out of it I was really ready to fight. It took a lot of willpower to let the anger go and not just blow off her head with a chakra enhanced punch like Inner Sakura was screaming at me to do. But the battle had been going on for a while and I knew we were both running low on chakra.

So Instead I raced around her kicking up dust and making it so that she couldn't tell where I was before leaping in and landing a kick to the back of her head, which turned out to be a kawarimi no jutsu. Koneko came from below trying to catch me in an upper cut, but I wove my body to the side in a dodging butterfly move smoothly avoiding her fist and then ducking down I tried to knock her feet out from under her.

We began to trade rapid blows, not bothering to dodge some but rather behaving like we were in a boxing match and just trying to pound our opponent into the ground.

I spat out some blood after a particularly vicious right hook and landed a kick to her knee, right before I spotted Kou and Haruko. We traded a few more blows before Kou pulled us apart, he did not look happy.

"You're supposed to be training, not beating the heck out of each other!" He snapped at us both as we looked up at him, flushing guiltily as he took in our sweat soaked and bloodied appearances. "You ought to know better, especially you Sakura-sama!" He pointed an accusing finger at me and I couldn't help but give him a tired smile. "You're a medic-nin for crying out loud, and I'm going to need to take you **both** to the hospital." He said loudly in disgust, much the same way Tsunade-sama used to yell at Naruto and Sasuke when they'd been brought into the hospital for fighting. It looked like Kou was going to go on a rant at us but Haruko stopped him, she was unusually quiet. That was usually Kou's tack whereas Haruko was the loud one.

"I dunno, maybe I should take back the Anbu recommendation." She said looking very serious all of a sudden, serious like I'd never seen and my heart felt like it had dropped out of my chest. All I could do was look at my feet, hanging my head in shame.

"Oh, come off it you two!" My head shot up at Koneko's voice, and I stared in shock at the usually articulate and reserved woman. "We all put in a recommendation for Sakura, and if she's behaving badly, then I am too! Sakura is more than qualified for Anbu, and it's not as if we were doing anything other than throwing a few punches."

"Yeah!" I interjected. "My old teammates used to fight so seriously with each other that they'd try to kill each other using 'Rasengan' and 'Chidori' on each other!" Kou just gave me a dirty look but I grabbed him and hugged him, despite the disgusting stench emanating from me and the filth covering me from head to toe. I jumped up and down while pouting and giving him puppy dog eyes until he gave in and smiled with me.

"Okay, Sakura-sama, you win. But you two are going to the hospital now, whether you like it or not." Then he grinned while we both groaned and he went to wake up Tatsumaki.

The Anbu Exam was scheduled after all the participants were determined. The deadline to receive recommendations wasn't for several weeks, which meant I had to wait an entire month. During this time I trained frantically while diligently developing several new jutsu to use just for reconnaissance. Haruko and Tatsumaki said that the key to passing a lot of the tests was in subtlety rather than strength. A lot of the Anbu missions involved trying to avoid fights, which meant stealth and infiltration a lot of the time.

Needless to say, by the time the exam finally got there I was so excited that I was impatient. I didn't really care if I passed the first time, I knew that if I didn't and wanted to try again I could just get one of my sparring partners to recommend me a second time. Of course whether I passed or not was all due to my ability to outperform the other candidates and how many anbu slots were open and available, I knew that some were already spoken for if certain individuals passed their exams but I wasn't included among that number. The Hokage didn't show favoritism, not like the Hyuuga clan, not that Neji needed it I was sure he would perform wonderfully as always. But as it was I was much more eager to go on my first real solo mission. Though I knew better than to think I would be truly alone with the Itachi threat. I fully expected to have guards trailing me unseen like they had in the jounin exam.

I waited excitedly outside the Hokage's office for my first mission with all the other Anbu candidates. I looked around and suddenly wished that Yuri was there. "I guess she wasn't able to get an Anbu to nominate her after all…" I thought to myself in disappointment, heck even Naruto had managed to get a recommendation and he was still only a chuunin. The red haired jounin though, was to me what Gai was to Kakashi, my eternal rival, only more fun since when we competed we bet pranks or real consequences for each other and different people. The last time we'd had a challenge had been a couple months ago and Yuri'd had to steal all of Kakashi's Icha Icha books, including the one he always carried around with him. The time before that I had lost and had to pose in a bikini for Jiraya while he drew my likeness and figure for the next novel in his series. Kakashi still couldn't look me in the face after he read that damn perverted book. And as far as I'd heard he had a signed copy of it under glass at his apartment. Though I didn't know if that was true or not, it was just a rumor.

I pretended to be affronted and angry but secretly I was pleased with the reactions I'd gotten, and it had been fun to pose for the dirty old pervert. He hadn't done anything other than draw, which was strange since every time I'd ever seen him looking at a woman's body he got a nosebleed and tried to grope her. But he hadn't tried anything, he was probably too afraid I would back out of my offer to pose for him.

But our competitions weren't like Gai and Kakashi's, there were no games of rock-paper-scissors, we had straight battles most of the time. We had tried other more subtle competitions but they didn't work out so well, like the time we decided to try to steal Lee's weights without him noticing. Yuri couldn't even lift the weight, and I had to use my chakra enhanced strength to lift what he did everyday without any chakra at all. We both failed that one and ended up doing Lee's entire daily workout with him, non-stop it took us an entire day and into the evening to finish his workout. He had finished his entire workout and we hadn't even finished the third set of his workout challenges.

But I was brought out of my thoughts when my name was called. I walked into the Hokage's office to see Shizune standing next to the desk with Kakashi and my four sparring partners. Tonton lay sleeping on Tsunade-sama's lap like a fat and furless cat.

I was surprised to see all of them there. They hadn't mentioned that they would be and usually they told me that kind of stuff. 'They must've been ordered not to.' I thought to myself as I approached the desk.

"Godaime-sama." I said, bowing formally due to the occasion. I thought the formal behavior was warranted and for the first time I noticed that the shades were down on the windows and taped shut so no one could peek inside. I frowned wondering why they would do that, and if they had done that for all of the other's.

"Haruno, Sakura." My eyes shot back directly to Tsunade and she started to speak. "Due to certain factors you're mission will be a bit different from the rest of the prospective Anbu." I started to say that I didn't want special treatment, but she held up her hand and waved me to silence. "Due to the danger posed by one Uchiha, Itachi I am going to have a decoy unit sent out. Hatake Kakashi will pose as you while your usual guards follow him and he completes a mission similar to the ones we have assigned to the others. You will travel from the moment you leave this room, in the form of Hatake Kakashi. That should be easy enough with the amount of time you've spent with one another." She glanced over at Kakashi who was furiously reading his Icha Icha book as if it would go up in flames at any moment. I knew why of course, if he had to pose as me he would have to give up the book until the end of his mission or until Itachi attacked and he could drop the disguise. Of course that meant that I myself would have to walk around pretending to read it while I posed as him. I frowned at that, I wasn't in the habit of behaving like a pervert in public.

"You will be given a regular mission like the others, and expected to carry it out just as they are. That means that we cannot send anyone with you." I was surprised and pleased at the same time, yet my worry tingled at the outer edges of my brain. That meant there wouldn't be any back up should I need it on this mission, and I was used to having teammates to support me. "This means that should our decoy not fool the Uchiha you will have to deal with him yourself, **alone**." She emphasized the word alone. She held up a mission scroll and I took it, reading it in astonishment. I hadn't expected something like this, at least not for my first mission. Today was just going to be full of surprises.


	22. Chapter 22

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Chapter 22

Happy Birthday to You

"Wait, Sakura." Sasuke interrupted my story. "You said that you posed for that pervert sannen?" I nodded, while he started looking kind of sick.

"If you can't handle that little tid-bit how are you ever going to manage hearing about the rest of the mission?" I asked smirking at him, Naruto hadn't wanted to hear anything after the part about my infiltration.

"No, I'm fine." He stated, but the words sounded forced, my smirk widened to a grin.

"Good, I'd hate to think that the great Uchiha, Sasuke had such a weak stomach, Naruto lasted through the story much longer than this…" I goaded and grinned as his head snapped up and he glared his Uchiha death glare at me, but I'd seen it so many times as a child that I was immune to it by now.

"So what happened after you left Godaime's office?" He forced himself to ask, while trying to appear calm and impassive, yet failing.

Okay, where was I…Oh yes I'd just transformed into Kakashi, I took his book and used the transportation jutsu to poof over to Ichiraku…

I walked into Ichiraku with Kakashi's Icha book in front of my face that was now identical to Kakashi's. Of course he had still refused to let me see under his mask even for authenticity purposes.

I ordered a miso ramen to go, I'd had to make up my own version of what I thought his face looked like but I didn't want to take the chance of coming across someone that knew his real face or giving people the wrong impression of what he did look like, so instead I transported again and ate inside his apartment. We'd swapped keys to our apartments just before I'd left. He went to my apartment and packed things that I would wear and I went to his place and ate at his kitchen table while actually reading that perverted book. It would definitely come in handy on this mission.

Then I went into his bedroom and packed a small bag with essentials that I always knew him to bring. Unfortunately the Fanged Vengeance scroll wasn't an option but It's not like Itachi would watch that closely anyways, and I thought about it for a moment considering. Kakashi never went anywhere without that scroll, that was why he was such a superb tracker. But it wouldn't be any use to me since he'd never taught me how to use it.

This packing was strange but I knew I couldn't go home to pack for the long mission, I needed Kakashi's clothes if I were to constantly impersonate him while traveling through foreign territory. And we needed to fool Itachi enough to get him to overlook me if he was watching. I had no desire to run into him while out there on my own.

After shoving everything into his usual pack, I slung it over my shoulder and left his apartment making sure to lock up behind myself and place the keys in the mailbox like I'd been told. Apparently his landlady came by to check on his apartment when he was gone on long missions.

I walked slowly with my nose in the book toward the back gate that I needed to go through in order to head through the mountains.

It took me a week to reach my destination even at top speed, I was supposed to reach Hangakai, before the prince's birthday. It would make it easier to accomplish my mission that way.

I strolled through the city the night before his birthday and spent most of the time looking for weak points in the palace security.

Security was especially tight due to the many guests and tourists pouring into town for the festival in celebration of Prince Zaidan's eighteenth birthday.

I arrived that night and targeted the weak point in security, which meant that I still had to get past three guards that patrolled the wall.

It was rather easy after I cast a small genjutsu around them making it so that they couldn't see or hear me. Then I used my chakra to walk up the wall and into the palace.

It was so easy to infiltrate the palace that a genjutsu type genin could have done it, but only because these people were just a bunch of civilians and guards, not ninja's. I found my way to his quarters, the layout of the castle had been given to me in the mission scroll, enumerating defenses, personnel, and where different hallways of the castle led including the 'royal chambers'.

Once inside I found a girl about my own age nervously sitting in the middle of a large four poster bed. She glanced up in surprise at the early arrival. Her eyes widened at the appearance of a ninja entering the room. I quickly put her to sleep with pinching a nerve at the side of her neck.

Then I used a relatively simple genjutsu that I'd developed for information retrieval on unconscious victims. The hand seals were a bit complicated, but when I touched her and asked her questions she would pull the information from her mind and give me the answer, afterward I could release it or alter her memories if I so chose (Thanks to Ino who specialized in mind traps I could now alter and implant false memories into my victims). But a lot of that would have to wait until later. Right now I just wanted to get the information vital to the mission.

"What's your name?" I asked first, it would have felt wrong to talk to the girl without even knowing what her name was.

"My designation is Haru, I have no name." I immediately felt sorry for the girl called Haru.

"What time will the prince be arriving?" I asked the sleeping girl.

"He'll be here after the dinner." Came the girls childlike voice, most people sounded childlike when sleep talking.

"What time will the dinner be done?" I asked trying to be more specific for her.

"They said it would last until at least ten." Replied her cute little voice.

"Has the prince seen you yet?" I asked

"No."

"Has he ever seen you?"

"No."

"Was anything special requested when you were picked as the prince's…special gift?" I hesitated not wanting to call her any harsh names, she just looked too sweet and innocent for that. I'd leave that to someone else.

"An obedient virgin was requested."

"A virgin was requested." When those words passed her lips I groaned in frustration. It was not going to be fun to have to break this girl's hymen when all was said and done. And if I ended up having to go through with what I thought I would need to, then I would have to do it in order to cover up my tracks.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly to calm my nerves.

"Do you know anything about the scroll?" I asked resuming my interrogation.

"Scroll?" Her voice sounded confused. Good, she was just a civilian.

I released the jutsu and for the first time I was forced to look at what she was wearing. She was smaller than me, with a full figure, naked except for a green thong and a large matching ribbon that wrapped around her breasts in a large bow. Her long blonde hair flowed down to reach the middle of her back in gentle golden waves. My hair was actually longer than hers I thought with some satisfaction. There was no doubt that she was beautiful, she had a golden peach colored skin tone and a delicate round face resembling a porcelain doll, full shaped cupids bow mouth and a pert little upturned nose. Long dark lashes framed her eyes which I had to open to find out the color. Blue, not the cerulean color of Naruto's clear blue eyes, but more a cornflower blue, and above those pretty eyes were delicately shaped golden brown eyebrows and a (but of course!) lovely normal sized forehead. This girl had probably never been picked on in her entire life for what she looked like. I sighed in disgust and pulled both items off of her before releasing the henge of Kakashi that I'd been in almost non-stop for an entire week.

I pulled the girl over the side of the bed and pushed her under until she lay in the center. Then I cast a simple jutsu to make her blend in with the shadows under the bed.

I then transformed into Haru and pulled off Kakashi's jounin clothing and stuffed them and my cloak and hitai ate inside the pack, and shoving it under the bed with the girl. Then I glanced at the thong and ribbon and sighed before pulling them on. I wondered for a moment why the items were green when Haru's eyes were blue, it seemed strange to me that the person to dress her hadn't matched the ribbon and thong to her eye color to bring out more of her natural beauty. But then I recalled a piece of information from the scroll stating that Prince Zaidan's favorite color was green. I shrugged, 'I guess it makes sense in a way.'

I inserted the diaphragm and false hymen before pulling on the so called 'lingerie' that Haru had been wearing. Then I crawled up into the bed and sat in the exact spot I had found Haru.

But it was only six o'clock, and I had a long wait before the prince returned from his banquet dinner. So I leaned back against the head board trying to relax the muscles in my shoulders a bit.

What a stupid mistake.


	23. Chapter 23

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Ch 23

Ask me no questions and I'll tell you no lies…

"You fell asleep during your mission?" Sasuke asked giving me a skeptical raise of his eyebrow. "And you still passed the exam?"

"Yup, I did. But that was because I salvaged the mission with some special mind manipulation jutsu's that I'd worked on with Ino." I couldn't take complete credit for those genius techniques, though Inoshi, Ino's father, had been impressed. "Prince Zaidan came in and found me sleeping on his bed, when the whole thing was through I had to rifle through his mind to find the information that I wanted anyway. It wasn't too hard to go back through and blur my features so that he couldn't tell the difference between me and that Haru girl. Another handy technique was the one we developed to implant memories from one person into another to cover over memories you don't want them to have. So I gave her my memories of the evening as I-"

"I don't really want to hear the details of what you did with that guy." Sasuke interrupted looking kind of green again. I just laughed.

"Well, you made it further through the story than Naruto did, as soon as he found out I was supposed to seduce someone for a mission he'd turned purple and passed out." I laughed some more and it earned a smirk from Sasuke while he watched me in silence.

"The way you said 'someone', leads me to believe that you've done it more than once, and that you're missions didn't always involve men…" He let his voice trail off as I gave him a sharp look promising him lots if pain unless he stopped talking.

"Yes, that's true. But I didn't get asked for something like that during my exam, they set aside special training for that kind of 'stuff'." I replied, watching his face. He stayed expressionless but his ears turned a bit red and I grinned at him maliciously. I guess no man was immune to girl on girl action, not even the stone faced Uchiha, though it appeared he was too good at hiding his emotional reaction to get a nosebleed like Naruto.

"Okay back to my story." I said getting tired of the small talk. It was just too…weird…to talk with Sasuke like this. I'd spent years idolizing him, and now that I didn't I had to get used to interacting with him all over again.

"After that mission, I handed over the retrieved scroll and was told to go get some sleep and report back in the morning…"

I slipped from shadow to shadow along the walls of the enemy compound. I'd dampened my chakra signature so that I could slip past the guards unnoticed, but it would only make it harder for some to detect me, not impossible. So I'd taken extra care in wrapping a shadow genjutsu around myself. For a five foot radius I was cloaked in shadows making it impossible to see my features. But if anyone looked close enough, they would see a black human-shaped shadow blending in like a chameleon with the surroundings.

The only problem was the fact that there were many, many shinobi here. The base I had infiltrated was affiliated with Orochimaru, we had gotten intelligence that they were planning a strike on one of the five villages and my mission was to perform a solo multiple assassination operation to wipe out the possible threat.

Unfortunately our information wasn't as reliable as I would have liked, instead of finding a handful of chuunins and a jounin here, I found a handful of jounins and dozens of chuunin level shinobi and kunoichi. This wasn't a tiny training outpost like I'd been informed, it was an entire encampment of shinobi. Or it could possibly mean that they were there to prepare for the attack, which would mean that it would happen sometime soon.

After spending two days and a night outside the walls observing the compound I had decided to make my way to the central location where I knew the jounins were having some kind of meeting. I had breeched security several times, once to gather information on the layout of the base but I'd only had enough time to spy on some of the chuunins in the tent area. I'd gone back several times afterward and had gathered some remarkable Intel, which was how I'd learned about the mandatory jounin meeting in the first place.

If I was lucky I could observe their plans and get some more information, but that was assuming that I could go unnoticed.

But I didn't really have a choice, if I killed the chuunin guards on the outer walls then the jounins on the inside might be alerted to my presence and come running. I'd rather have to fight chuunins than jounins. I just had to take them by surprise and everything would work out.

I had several shadow clones stationed near the outer walls by their intended targets for when I finished with my business inside, but I wasn't ready yet. It also helped disperse my chakra allowing me to expend less energy on dampening my signature and making it harder for others to detect me as I made my way through the darkened interior of the inner sanctum.

"Kabe mane no jutsu" I whispered lightly resting the knuckles of my fist against the wall in front of me and forcing my chakra into it. This technique, Wall imitation, allowed me to displace a wall rather like concentrating chakra to my foot and then stomping on the ground to form a deep crack in the earth, only this technique was a lot more subtle.

With this jutsu I could pull myself inside the wall and disappear, becoming just another wall to the people walking by. Once I got inside and closed the wall behind me, I used my 'supai kabe no jutsu' which worked best in tandem with the wall imitation jutsu. It was a subtle technique that I'd worked out with Koneko, this 'spy wall' technique allowed me to see and hear through the walls. It made the wall my eyes and ears. The technique was perfect for medium sized rooms as it worked rather like a telescope magnifying my vision and causing the room to echo sounds, it made it seem as if I was outside an open window allowing me to see and hear their discussion.

Except it wasn't a window and they couldn't see or hear me in return, that was the beauty within the two techniques. I was concealed within the wall where I couldn't be seen, and the echoes within the room covered any quiet noises I might make. The sound barrier included writing down what they were saying and any jutsu's I might use while inside. And it wasn't just some simple technique that anyone could use, only someone who had mastered chakra control would be able to do the jutsu. It didn't take a lot but the precise chakra control was even more difficult than doing some surgical procedures. Hell, neither Tsunade nor Koneko could perform the technique very well.

Another good thing about being within the wall was that I didn't have to worry about others sensing my chakra as much, so long as I kept it dampened the wall would do the rest of the work for me.

I finished my technique and closed my eyes allowing my outer consciousness to flit away while my inner eyes opened to see a large table with eight jounins seated and standing around it. The echo from inside the room penetrated the wall and was filtered into my ears.

"See right here is where their strongest defenses are, we want to ambush those first so that they can't relay any warnings to the rest of the village. From there we can infiltrate the Hyuuga compound, Orochimaru-sama is interested in the Byakugan ability and said to take one of the teenage heirs, or if that proves impossible to take the sealed prodigy." I scowled, how dare they underestimate us, and think that we would allow them to just take one of our comrades.

"While team A is doing that, team B will be distracting the Hokage and her apprentice's, which means we have to do this quickly and quietly, if the Hokage finds out that…" I let the words wash over me as they continued to go over their strategy, listing our defenses and weaknesses.

I listened and watched them for well over an hour and I was beginning to think that this was some all night meeting. But then several of the jounins started yawning and the man standing at the head of the table dismissed them.

I immediately started pulling apart the wall in front of me as they drifted out of the room. When there were only three left in the room I stepped out of the wall and into the shadows of the room.

"Ido no kurayami" I whispered but the whisper was only a thought in my head as I placed my palms together and closed my eyes sending out the jutsu toward the unsuspecting ninja's. The 'Well of darkness' technique allowed me to block off all five senses of my target or in this case, targets.

Trapped within the realm of their minds I could hear their immediate cries of fear, but I was the only one who could hear them.

I moved forward silently and slit the throats of the two men and remaining woman before turning to the table where their plans were laid out. Quickly I rolled up the papers and stuffed them inside my jounin vest in between the bra and my skin.

I then pursued the remaining five jounins as they made their way back to their rooms. I shadowed them as they practically staggered down the hallway.

The five never made it to their quarters as I performed the art of silent killing on them from behind. I remembered back when I was a genin and Kakashi had told us how Zabuza was renowned for his ability with this single skill, silent killing was never a science but always an art. That was because it was an unpredictable variable frequently changing from situation to situation. A science would mean that it could be broken down to a series of continually perfected repetitious movements, but that wasn't the case. So it was called an 'art'.

This took on a whole new meaning for me as I pulled my kunai across their throats. Not even the last man to die knew it was coming until his lifeblood was spraying outward and spilling down over his vest, he just stared down at the wound and made a small gurgling sound before falling to the floor.

"Pathetic…" I whispered as his body hit the ground spraying more blood across my feet and the hem of my pants. Just as silently I telepathically sent out the orders to my clones and the chuunin bloodbath began.

I had really expected this mission to be more difficult after I'd found more targets here than originally informed of. But if the jounins were pathetic, then the chuunins were less than worthless. Most of them were asleep and my mission turned from assassination to slaughter. The ones that were on guard or awoke couldn't even defend themselves against a single jounin assassin and a handful of clones. And clones only have about one tenth the power of the original. They had their guard completely down thinking they were safe within the walls. I just sighed and shook my head.

I made my way outside to find that all the chuunins except one had been eliminated. The remaining chuunin was apparently pretty good compared to the rest, my clones couldn't sense him. But once he had dispelled all of my clones my senses weren't so dispersed and I could practically see him standing in the shadows. He was only fifty feet away and his chakra was pulsing like a beacon as he panted in fear.

I felt a bit bad for him as I approached, he wasn't even talented enough to notice me until I stood less than fifteen feet in front of him. I wasn't even hiding myself. Then he started panicking as he drew several shuriken out of his pouch and threw them at me trying distract me as he darted away. But instead I just blocked all the weapons and followed him, chasing him in a cruel game of cat and mouse.

I was tempted to just let him go as he threw more weapons at me and continued to run away, making it to the forest around the base. But I knew I couldn't, leaving a witness would be a very, very bad move.

So I decided to end the game. He screamed in terror as he smashed face first into my chest and fell heavily to the ground. He started screaming in terror as I knelt by his side and immobilized his hands. I wished that I could just erase the memories and leave him alive, but he was affiliated with Orochimaru and I knew that leaving him behind even without the memory of what had happened could lead to disaster so I simply gave him a quick death and then stepped back wiping the blood off my hands.

I walked away leaving the young man lying face up on the forest floor, hands crossed over his chest. I had completed my mission, and then some. I had gone above and beyond what my mission had stated, but I didn't feel real good about that right now. Having to kill someone begging for their life would depress the hell out of any sane person. Even though my actions would probably save many lives of the people in my village, not to mention the ninja's protecting it. So in the eyes of my peers what I had done was heroic, but I knew that wasn't true.

Hell my actions would probably lead Orochimaru to change his plans and devise a different attack strategy. But now he would have to step back and rethink how to get it and that would take time. So in the end all I would bring back was the knowledge that he was after the Hyuuga eyes and abilities, just like he had gone after Sasuke for the Sharingan.

That puzzled me though, because if he had an Uchiha why did he want the Hyuuga? They'd specified that Neji was one of the appropriate targets, which led me to believe that he was wanted as another container for Orochimaru's soul transfer technique. With the seal on Neji's forehead he certainly couldn't be used for any post death Byakugan evaluation. 'Unless of course he'd figured out a way to remove the seal...' I mused to myself as I ran through the trees headed home.

If that were true, he may be able to develop a technique that mimic's the Byakugan, or has already and wants to perfect it. That was a disturbing thought.

I leaned back on the roof and stared upward at the stars glittering above resting my voice a bit. Sasuke just sat there some more his face in his usual expressionless mask.

"Who taught you the 'art of silent killing' method?" His voice blandly asked more demand than question. I just rolled my eyes.

"I'd have thought you'd figure that one out." I replied raising my eyebrows at him.

"Kakashi, right?" He verified, but I just nodded. I didn't like to think about him too much, him and his favoritism. He'd only agreed to teach me because Sasuke had run off and Naruto had Jiraya and never went to him for help anymore, it left him without any excuses. I secretly thought that he'd only agreed because he felt snubbed that Naruto went to Jiraya in the first place. Either that or he'd always refused because he was a pervert and was attracted to me. It was a pretty thought but I doubted it.

"So what was the third task?" He asked his gaze settling on my face after roaming the rooftops during the silence that had ensued after my last mission story.

"Sorry, I can't tell ya that one, top secret. Unless you'd rather I lie to you?" I asked grinning with my finger in front of my lips. He just gave me a dirty look. "But you'd probably find the information about the six week survival camp and training period much more useful anyway." I added as an afterthought.

"Fine." He grunted, I imagined that he was uncomfortable sitting there like that on the roof, but he was too proud to take up a less "dignified" position. And I guess he wouldn't lower himself to taking the folding chair either. Just like Hyuuga Neji, they were more alike than they'd ever admit. And I wasn't about to burst their bubbles at least not right now. Of course Neji didn't have nearly as big a stick up his ass as Sasuke did.

I heard the rooftop door open and close again and craned my neck backwards so that I could see the person walking towards us. It was Lee, and I rolled over and pulled myself up on all fours.

"Ooh, head rush." I groaned as my head began to pound at the sudden blood rush. After a few seconds it wore off and I grinned up at Lee who was glaring and scowling at Sasuke, who in return just looked smugly right back at him.

"Lee-kun! I thought you were on a mission until tomorrow." I said remembering that he said he'd be gone for a few days right after I'd gotten out of the hospital. I'd pouted and he'd told me he'd come see me as soon as he came back. This was after I'd told him he couldn't sleep over with us as there wasn't enough room in my bedroom for so many people, let along all their egos.

"Yeah, but my team is so full of powerful youths that we finished early." He grinned at me, he was talking about his genin team. He really relished the fact that he was now a jounin sensei like his idol and mentor Maito, Gai.

"Help me up?" I said holding my arms up to him and he happily obliged pulling me into his arms and up against his chest to plant a tender kiss on my lips. I was happy that he'd stopped by his place before coming to see me. It was obvious that he'd showered and changed, thankfully, out of his green spandex jumpsuit.

Now he wore a forest green tee and a loose pair of black sweats that rode low on his hips, allowing me to see that he wasn't wearing _anything_ under them…

"Come on Sasuke, I'm ready to go in so you need to come back with us." I said giving him a quick glance as I looped my arm around Lee's lower back, and caught the wide grin Lee now had on his face.

"I'd ask you to _train_ with me but you've got company." Lee said, with special emphasis on the word 'train' allowing even Sasuke know that it was innuendo and what he really meant was "I wish we were alone so we could have vigorous and youthfully hot and sweaty sex my beautiful flower!" Word for word that was probably what he was thinking, and it wasn't exactly the most arousing turn of phrase, heck the whole 'training' euphemism was more erotically charged, but I enjoyed Lee's little quirks and didn't mind when he said weird things…most of the time.


	24. Chapter 24

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Ch 24

More Boring Research

The next morning I slept in and messed up my usual training routine. It took forever to get any sleep with the two other men in my room not to mention the sweltering heat that had somehow invaded the entire apartment.

Only after a grumpy breakfast where I and several others sat at the table groggily eating bowls of cereal and worshipping the coffee pot were we finally able to leave and head back to the hospital.

Today I was supposed to perform an examination on one Uchiha, Sasuke. Not a routine medical exam, though that would be included. But rather an in depth analysis of his physical attributes, abilities, mental capabilities and of course a little research on his curse seal and Sharingan.

It reminded me of when I'd come back after that test.

Sound plans in hand I had walked into the Hokage's office to debrief her, thankfully when I'd arrived only Shizune had been present. Shizune knew everything that went on in Konoha, so far as I knew, she wasn't a busy body or anything but somehow she just always knew what was going on.

I smirked to myself mentally, 'Well, today she was in for a surprise', I thought to myself in satisfaction. I elaborated the details of my mission and even went so far as to unroll the scrolls and go into details about what I'd overheard.

Tsunade looked grave as we reviewed the details, and she gave me her consent to get what I wanted so long as I didn't step on any toes. I just grinned and said, "Who, me?" In a mock innocent pose as I fluttered my eyelashes rapidly in a playful manner. Shizune just giggled and Tsunade's lips twitched, she'd deny it but she thought it was funny.

It was still early in the day and I didn't have to report for my next mission until tomorrow morning so I made my way over to the Hyuuga estate and knocked on the large and foreboding gates. A branch family member that I didn't know answered the door with his seal blazing on his forehead for all to see.

The poor man didn't look too happy, kind of like an older and dourer version of Neji. I had to refrain from wincing at his expression as I asked to see Hinata-chan.

He merely nodded and motioned for me to follow him. It was kinda creepy following the man through the silent halls of the Hyuuga family house. The house and family were both so large and yet it seemed so…empty. I knew that the entire Hyuuga clan lived inside the walls of the compound much like the Uchiha clan once had in their own family estates across town.

'So where was everyone?' I thought to myself as we passed innumerable closed doors. I was very thankful when the man came to a stop at the door to the back courtyard and pointed out Hinata on the training field. I just smiled gratefully and slipped out the door approaching Hinata cautiously as she annihilated a dummy attached to a post with her Jyuuken.

I'd heard that she'd been training harder so that she could become a jounin, I was suspicious though, she was probably only pushing herself like this because Naruto was still a chuunin and she knew he'd want to go up a level at his next opportunity, I didn't want to be the one to tell her if he made anbu and bypassed Jounin completely.

She was using 'The Hakke Rokujuuyon Shou' I thought, hoping I'd remembered the name correctly from the last time I'd seen it used when Neji had fought Naruto during the first chuunin exams. The idea behind it from what I gathered was to hit 64 of the tenketsu and close them thus preventing the victim or enemy from using chakra. I'd seen it in action, it looked cool. Naruto'd had trouble standing up after that.

I walked confidently over to the Hyuuga Heiress not bothering to be quiet, she would see me anyway as the Byakugan had 360 degree visibility.

"Konnichiwa Sakura-san." Hinata said halting her training and turning to face me when she detected my presence.

"Konnichiwa Hinata-chan." I replied smiling at her hesitant manner, no matter how many times I'd told her I didn't need the honorific she always stubbornly included it. She smiled back and we moved away from the training area walking through the cherry blossom orchard so that we could talk privately.

"Hinata I was wondering if you could arrange for me to have a meeting with your father, Hiashi-sama." I said as we walked, I felt it was better to get straight to the point. Her mouth dropping open in surprise though making me laugh.

"S-Sakura-san, why would you want to see otosan?" She just silently stared at me in shock. Her complete seriousness helped me stop my giggling and get serious once more.

"There is a matter that I wish to discuss, I guess you could call it a favor or proposition. But it's important that I see him." I stressed the importance so that she didn't think I just wanted to meet him and yell at him because I didn't like the way he treated his daughter. "If you don't find him receptive you can tell him that the meeting will contain some recently gathered Intelligence that the Hyuuga clan should be made aware of." Hinata paled, but nodded. I smiled tiredly. I yawned into my hand and clapped a hand gently on her shoulder. "I knew I could count on you Hinata-chan." I yawned again. "Now if you don't mind I'm beat, I need to go find my bed and get some sleep before I have to go back out tomorrow morning."

Hinata just giggled timidly and walked me out.

"Sakura!" I blinked my eyes and they focused on Sasuke standing in front of me. 'Shit that isn't good, how long have I been spacing out?' I thought in surprise as I was standing in front of my teammate who was currently sitting on the examination table and glaring at me in displeasure.

"Quit daydreaming!" He snapped at me grabbing the stethoscope around my neck and tugging it off and shoving it into my empty hands. "I don't want to be here any longer than I have to be."

"Hai. Sorry about that I just was thinking about something." I replied and placed the earpieces in my ear canal wishing that they were a bit smaller so they'd fit a bit more comfortably.

"Where exactly are we anyway?" Sasuke asked in a tone that told me he didn't exactly have a high regard for his surroundings. Not that I blamed him really, there was a large hole where part of the wall should have been. Several weeks ago Naruto had pissed me off enough that I'd punched him through the wall, a total accident, really. But he'd been asking for it anyway.

Then hospital administration had come and said that they wouldn't foot the bill for repairs since I'd caused the damage myself, especially since I'd done something similar a year earlier to a different ninja. He'd been asking for it too, and it wasn't like I'd really injured either of them with those little love taps anyway.

They told me that I'd have to either pay the bill or fix it myself. But right after that I'd been assigned to the Orochimaru assassination and apparently only a sealed tarp had been thrown over the gaping hole to keep out wind and stray animals and unwanted guests. I just shrugged, I'd get around to fixing it when I got to it. I was much too busy right now, besides if I waited long enough Tsunade-sama would probably make them repair it for me anyway with all the expensive equipment and delicate research I did in here.

"We're in one of my labs, and it's not so bad really it just looks that way because Naruto made a really hasty and unexpected exit out that wall." I said pointing to the area where debris was spread around the blue tarp that was sealed around the gap in the outside wall.

"Hn." Was all that he replied, as usual. But I didn't care, not like I had when I was twelve. Besides I understood him a bit more now, my own experiences with Itachi had brought me a better understanding of exactly why Sasuke was how he was. He hated him with an unmatched passion because he had killed the people he had loved the most. He was forever overshadowed by this hated older brother, even now after years of training with Orochimaru he still wasn't a match for his brothers' speed, strength and power.

I understood because when my father had been killed on what was supposed to be a 'routine' scouting mission I had wanted nothing more than to go and kill every single one of those mother-fuckers.

My father hadn't been a genius, he'd spent his life gathering and bringing back information. He was not a fighter, he wasn't even supposed to be in a dangerous location, there were no feuds or potentially violent factors in the area to worry about, and he was just going to get a lay of the land. To survey the area so to speak, for map making or something. But he had been killed anyway, there had never been a reason and so he was just dead.

We'd never found out who it was that had killed him, his own squad hadn't seen a thing. Apparently he'd been on watch that night and they woke up somewhere near the next shift to find parts of him lying around the campfire.

I'd spoken to them personally and they'd said it was almost as if he'd been eliminated by professional hunter-nin there was so little left of his body. There was no sign of a struggle, he'd never even known what hit him. Why kill him and not the rest? Why even target my father though?

I brought my thoughts back to the task that I was supposed to be concentrating on and forced away the unpleasant puzzle. Instead I concentrated on Sasuke's heart rate, reflexes, and overall condition.

Once I got to his cursed seal though, I stopped and stared at the mark that was there. That wasn't what the cursed seal had looked like when he'd gotten it.

After he'd been bitten the mark had just appeared on his skin looking for all intents and purposes like a small tattoo on his left shoulder next to his neck. The skin was raised and hairless almost like a scar. But instead of being black like I'd expected or pink like scar tissue it was a pale brown. It looked like a birthmark or one of those rare moles that some people are born with. I frowned in confusion, not really knowing what to make of it.

"What's the matter now?" He asked with impatience evident in his voice. But I couldn't explain it so I pulled him off the table and led him to the sink where a mirror above it showed him some of what I was seeing.

"Has this been like this or did this happen after Orochimaru died?" I asked holding his shirt collar away from that area and forcing his head to the side to look at what had been or was his cursed seal.

"It never looked like this before, but it's not like I checked on it everyday to make sure it was still there Sakura." He said in exasperation.

"Good, I'll call Anko in and check her seal too to see if Orochimaru's death is what affected it or if it's just yours." I said turning away and picking up my notebook and rapidly flipping to Sasuke's section. I started a new page to note my observations on the change in his seal.

"Mitarashi, Anko, the woman that was the second examiner from the chuunin exams? How does she have a cursed seal?" Sasuke asked in a tone of almost surprise or maybe it was curiosity. I guess Orochimaru was never very chatty with Sasuke about his past before he'd been a missing nin.

"It's really not my place to speak about that. If Anko wants to tell you she will." I finished sketching and formed a few seals to make the sketch more real looking and illustrate the changes between its previous incarnation. "Of course, Anko hated Orochimaru and everything he stood for, so therefore I'd surmise that she'd just blow you off at best. At worst she'd probably attack you, she thinks you were a waste of my – our time." I quickly revised the 'my' into 'our', I didn't really want to get into how Anko thought I had bad taste in men. Though she said that Lee was good for me, she just liked the way he pampered me and took care of me. Anko thought that being in a relationship meant that you were supposed to take care of each other, and I had kind of adopted that idea, Sasuke would never take care of anyone but himself, and I understood that now.

"Hn." Was all that he replied, I guess he wasn't feeling all that chatty or looking forward to people calling him the 'Uchiha Traitor' again. The looks we'd gotten this morning as we walked from my apartment to the Konoha Hospital had been intimidating.

"Here. Hop back up on the table and I'll take a look inside the seal." I said motioning him back to where he'd been sitting. "You'll probably need to lie down. It'll make it more comfortable for you as well as easier for me, so that I don't have to stretch too much." He just stepped up and lay down on the table. I ignored his glare and formed the hand seals that would allow me to delve inside his body and examine the smallest nuances of the seal inside him.


	25. Chapter 25

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Ch 25

No Rest for the Weary

I went to bed that night exhausted after spending all day searching through Sasuke's system studying his seal and then training with both Lee and Sasuke. Then I had trained with Haruko and Kou when Lee and Sasuke had started a taijutsu match. Sasuke was bruised and battered, and looked tired after facing the Taijutsu Master. I knew Lee hadn't gone easy on him like he did for me, but then Sasuke wouldn't have had it any other way. He thought that getting the crap kicked out of him meant he would be stronger the next time around. I knew better though.

So when my head hit the pillow that night I fell sound asleep, it didn't matter that there were two other guys scuffling around my room.

I was running, there was something behind me and I couldn't seem to get away. I'd think that I'd finally found a safe place to hide, but then I would have to run again, constantly trying to put distance between myself and what was following me.

But then the world had melted around me and I found myself in the forest, I was with Naruto and our two other jounin teammates that were testing for anbu. We had just finished our mission successfully and were headed back to Konoha, jumping through the trees.

But I could feel it, something was wrong. And when we dropped from the trees to camp I could feel the presence of something, but I couldn't seem to make the others hear me. And then we were fighting, the four black and red cloaks billowing in the wind as they converged on us.

The kunai's flashed through the air as I met Itachi's blade and the others became background noise. Again and again the silver light flashes as we struggled together in a battle of strength versus strength. He steadily pushed my blade back further until his face could press in against the side of mine, both our blades crossed against each other and pressed against my neck.

"Better, but not good enough my little flower." He whispered in my ear in that sultry tone of his. I struggled harder against his hold and dropped to the ground kicking him in the abdomen and throwing him over my head away from me. I flipped to my feet and spun around to face him.

"I'm not your flower, asshole." I replied and threw a barrage of shuriken at him to distract him to the jutsu I wanted to do. But then I blinked and he was gone and I found my body moving of its own accord, my fist curling back and generating a massive amount of chakra. My fist shot forward unhindered in the light air around me.

I felt my fist connect with and penetrate a squishing and tearing sound causing me to look up. I gaped in horror as I looked down to find Naruto looking up at me in surprise as blood poured out of his mouth and down his chin. His wide cerulean blue eyes held fear in them as he clutched me in a hug. I had plunged my fist into his chest and through his heart tearing it to ribbons as my hand burst out his back.

And I realized then that we weren't standing in the middle of a battlefield but on the red bridge where team 7 met to wait for Kakashi, Naruto had simply grabbed me up in his usual enthusiastic hug.

"I'm sorry Sakura-chan." He whispered as he slipped to the ground at my feet and hit the ground.

"No! No you're not dead! This isn't happening! Wake up! Please wake up Naruto!" I cried shaking his body, but his eyes wouldn't open, and I just hugged him tightly to me as I cried. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Naruto."

I was roughly shaken awake and I shot up in the dark searching for the kunai I kept under my pillow only to come up empty handed.

"Relax Sakura-sama, it's just us." I recognized Kou's voice and I squinted into the dark to find Sasuke was standing next to him beside my bed. He was the one holding my kunai. He was looking at me strangely and I wondered what he was thinking.

"Sorry if I disturbed you guys." I said pulling the covers back and sliding out of my bed and past them. I opened the bedroom door and slipped into the bathroom. I let out a sigh of relief as I leaned against the door and put my head in my hands.

Startled I pulled back when I felt the dampness, my hands coming away wet with tears. 'I was crying in my sleep?' I thought incredulously. 'No wonder they'd woken me, I'd probably roused both of them with me blubbering like a baby.' And I'd probably lost any respect I might have had from Sasuke, he had always told me that I was weak, and crying was weak. 'A shinobi never shows emotions.'

"Stupid Sakura, stupid, stupid, stupid." I whispered smacking my fist softly into my forehead. I thought about it again though, it had been awhile since I'd dreamt about that night.

It hadn't really happened that way. Our four man cell had been headed to Konoha when I'd gotten that twitchy feeling like I was being watched and then the four Akatsuki members had ambushed us. Itachi had knocked me into a tree while Kisame was slashing at Naruto. I could see Deidara and his orange masked partner taking on the other two jounins but I didn't have time to watch as I jumped to my feet in order to keep Itachi from jumping into the fight with Naruto to help Kisame.

I'd been off balance and was getting beaten pretty badly when Itachi had made the 'my little flower' comment and then suddenly disappeared. Leaving me with two near dead comrades and a crazed Kyuubi container that had killed Kisame, Deidara and the third man who I later learned was called Tobi. When I saw him, he was indeed eating Deidara's arm that he had ripped off.

When I tried to get Naruto to awaken from his Kyuubi coma he had merely attacked scratching and biting furiously without any real technique. He'd acted exactly like a rabid wild animal. I had intended to put my hand through his chest with my fist when I saw his eyes waver and turn blue again. But it was too late and I couldn't stop my fist. I was able to pull back enough so that when I hit him in the chest it didn't break the skin but instead knocked him away from me and into a tree. Unfortunately without his Kyuubi reflexes he'd solidly hit the tree and with all the external damage already done to his body from the Kyuubi chakra he had broken his back. He'd spent months in therapy after that re-learning how to walk.

I'd ended up with several long scratches on my forearms, one particularly nasty one went from the inside of my elbow leading all the way down to the knuckle behind my pointer finger. It hadn't healed properly at first because it was so deep and the Kyuubi's chakra had been rife in that wound eating away at the healthy cells and causing it to fester even without the help of infection.

I simply sighed, and let my head fall back against the bathroom door for a moment. Then I stood and splashed my face with a little water, it was already four in the morning since I could see the clock on the counter spouting the numbers four forty-five and I knew I'd never get back to sleep.

It was too early to train with any of my sparring partners, but that didn't mean that I couldn't go out and do my own morning routine a little earlier than usual.

I rummaged through the bathroom hamper and came up with some relatively clean clothes that I could use for a training session. They would just get dirty anyway, and I would take a shower when I got back. Besides, this way I didn't have to go back to the bedroom and wake up Kou and Sasuke.

So I dressed in silence and stealthily made my way to the front door. After writing a quick note to let everyone know where I'd gone, I grabbed my training pack over my shoulder and headed out the door and down the apartment stairs.

The pack held all my special training equipment. Blindfold, weighted vest gloves and shin guards along with several special scrolls that I had been compiling for a while now.

I walked through the quiet streets and took in the silence as few people were out this early. Even the business owners weren't out yet, the sun was just letting its gentle rays peek out from behind the treetops warning that the sun would soon rise once again.

It was peaceful, and I enjoyed the chirping of the early birds in the trees as I approached my usual training grounds. I listened to the morning aubade of the birds as I slid into my shin guards and elbow length gloves. The vest I put on last since I had to take off my shirt. The jounin vest was so small and tight that when I zipped it up I couldn't have anything on underneath it except my sports bra otherwise it wouldn't fit. All three items were specially weighted as an extra training tool like Lee's leg weights and bandages.

My gloves held thin yet heavy weights in them as did the shin guards and the vest, which was why it had to be so tight. If it wiggled around even a little it would throw off my balance and concentration.

I wound my braid into a bun at the base of my collar so that it wouldn't get in my eyes during training, and then I stepped into the center of the clearing and limbered up.

I moved through a series of stretches bending at the waist and touching my toes and then bending backward and grabbing my heels. I spread my legs and allowed my body weight to push my down to the ground in a sideways split and flattened my body onto the ground until my stomach touched the dirt. I held that position for half a minute and then leaned up and shifted into a right front split, and bowing low over my knee until my nose touched the dirt and my fingers pulled my toes back arching my foot and pressing my leg straighter and further into the ground. Then I switched and did the same with my left.

When I'd finished my limbering up exercises I did one hundred laps around the training ground, I wasn't as crazy as Lee who usually did one hundred laps around the outside of Konoha and the circumference of the entire village.

After I'd warmed up though I balanced myself on my hands and began my upside down pushups that allowed me to train for physical strength as well as balance and stamina. I supported my entire body weight plus the extra weights as I completed each push up. On top of that I had come up with a way to make it even more complicated, I would pick a song, which I knew the words to, and sing it for as long as I continued to work out.

It was even more difficult that the push ups by themselves because I was exercising my lung capacity. I had to sing the words, do push ups, and continue to breathe at the same time. I'd passed out several times because I'd been singing and not breathing enough as I worked through one of my sets. This morning I set a goal of five hundred push ups while I sang. I'd gotten a lot more confident in that area recently, maybe it was just that my lung capacity was expanding…finally.

I ended up doing extra push ups while I finished singing one of the songs I'd picked today and then allowed my arms to collapse, I tucked my head and gently rolled onto my back and the forward into a crouch to allow my head to go back to its normal blood pressure as I held myself still through the usual head rush whenever I got up too fast.

Then I walked back to my pack and pulled out the blindfold and walked back to my spot in the middle of the clearing. I tied the blindfold on, I'd planned to shadow fight with myself and several clones but I heard soft chuckling and froze in my defensive position.

"Who's there?" I called out, I couldn't tell who was there, I hadn't even heard them approach. It made me wonder how long they'd been there watching me.

"I thought I heard you over here, Yoake." I heard Neji calling as he walked toward me. I stayed in my defensive position, he'd probably come to spar since I knew he wasn't the kind of person that would be sent to relay a message unless, it was from Tasogare that is.

"Come on, you don't need to call me by my anbu alias unless we're on a mission…Hiruma." I said back not missing a beat as I heard his feet shift into a fighting stance in the dirt about ten feet away from me. It must have been after six by now for Neji to be out here training, I hadn't thought that much time had passed. He rushed forward in a movement that told me he was aiming for the right side of my body, where I thought he was planning to hit told me that he was going to try incapacitating me straight off by closing my tenketsu right from the start.

I crouched even lower in defense, and when his fingers had just barely brushed my right arm I spun out, around and behind him ramming my own palm into his back. Only his momentum had saved him from the worst of the blow. I'd only managed to brush him. I jumped into the air and aimed a kick at where I had last heard his movement. But I knew he was no longer there, so when he sped in from the opposite side I just twisted my body in mid-air and struck out punching him in his arm as I slid away in the other direction and rolled on the ground until I'd regained my feet.

But now I had no idea where he was, and I was at a disadvantage with the blindfold. Neji was quiet, even quieter that Kou if that was at all possible. I usually had to strain to hear even the slightest of movements.

I felt a rush of wind from behind me and shot my leg backwards to catch him with a kick as he approached hopefully headfirst.

My foot connected with his torso, but it only brushed across his chest as he twisted to the side to avoid the direct hit. Then he grabbed my leg and tried to throw me, only I'd thrown my other foot up to catch him in the chin and free the first leg while balancing on my hands. This hit missed but he let go of my leg. I then spun around on my hands in a move that brought my feet down under his and sent him flying onto his back next to me as I flipped him and sat on his back trying to pin him to the ground.

I managed to grab one of his arms but he twisted around and I had to roll away or else he would have rolled us over with him on top in the dominant position. I knew from experience that wasn't a good position for me to be in with him when we were sparring.

"Déjà vu." He said chuckling quietly. The unemotional man had loosened up quite a bit since I'd known him, he'd have never laughed around me before. But he was right, except for the blind fold this fight was very similar to a previous sparring match we'd had when we first got on the same team together a few years earlier.


	26. Chapter 26

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Ch 26

Before I Knew Ye…pt. 1

The day I'd gotten my anbu letter stating that I had passed the first three trials and was to report for a six week boot camp, training and elimination period, I'd been ecstatic.

The scroll stated that it was a six week training program with a select group of candidates that I was competing with. There was a list of things that I was allowed to bring, such as feminine hygiene products, spare underwear, and specific types of ninja equipment that were allowed/required. Then there was another list of things that weren't allowed like portable entertainment devices, outside food or beverages, any type of self-medication, and communication scrolls.

The scroll I was reading made it seem like the next six weeks were going to be hell on those of us trying to finish the exam and achieve anbu status. It was kinda depressing and exciting at the same time.

Kind of a 'Bring on the Pain' mentality, that I had developed through my extensive training with Naruto and my anbu bodyguards on the path to becoming stronger. I walked into the apartment and sat down on the couch continuing to read the rest of the scroll.

I wasn't supposed to tell anyone where I was going or why, blah, blah, blah, yadda, yadda, yadda, the usual failure to comply threats, etc. etc.

This was followed immediately by the time, date and location to report to in order to continue with the exam. I was supposed to report to the Hokage Mountain three days from now in the emergency safety arena where all candidates would be gathering at noon to await further instructions.

I was excited at the thought of getting away for awhile as I'd spent the past few frustrating days with members of the Hyuuga clan, namely, Hinata and Neji studying their brains and Neji's seal once I'd received permission from Hiashi-sama.

After returning from my third anbu trial, I'd been in the hospital for a few hours sorting out with the medic's and Tsunade what had happened and had then trudged home only to find a messenger from the Hyuuga estate waiting on my doorstep with an invitation to meet with the Head of the Hyuuga clan at my earliest convenience. So I'd gotten a few hours of sleep and then forced myself to go out and meet with the man.

I'd approached the Hyuuga compound for the second time in the last few weeks and was once again greeted by the same sour faced man as before, he just nodded closing the door behind me and then once again motioned for me to follow him through the complex.

He paused in front of a set of double sliding doors on the outside of the old fashioned manse. He knocked lightly and silently slid the door open when the male voice beyond called, "Enter." Then he just bowed to me and shut the door behind me leaving me alone in the private study of Hyuuga, Hiashi.

I approached his large desk and bowed at the waist formally showing my respect for his clan, and gratitude that he accepted my request to meet with him.

"Please sit." He said stiffly reminding me of his nephew. The resemblance was uncanny, 'Hinata must look like her mother.' I thought as I seated myself in one of the large leather chairs. "Hinata stated that you had some important matters to discuss with me regarding some intelligence you gathered. I trust that it is a matter of importance to the Hyuuga since you wished to speak with me?" His words were cordial but his tone was flat without a hint of warmth or understanding, it sent a shiver down my spine just listening to it.

"Hai, Hyuuga-sama." I replied and not waiting for a response I stood once more and pulled out the scrolls I had taken from the complex. I spread the largest one out on his desk and used some of his paperweights to hold it open, if he minded he didn't show it.

"Part of my anbu test included a mission to infiltrate and delete all targets inside. I was given information that the group was a small training ground for Sound Allies and held a dozen or so chuunin and a jounin." I paused to unroll a second smaller scroll with the layout of the fort inside. "When I got there I found a small army of chuunins and nearly a dozen jounins. I infiltrated and overheard some of their attack plans. See, originally we didn't know what or who their targets were, but we know that now those nins were supposed to attack Konoha. They'd planned to infiltrate with an attack here." I pointed at the larger map at the first entry point. "They were going to stealth attack so that they could take us by surprise." The Hyuuga nodded glancing up at me briefly and then letting his eyes travel back down to the papers in front of us.

"I listened long enough that I found out they were going to use two groups, one was going to be used to distract Tsunade Shishou, Shizune-sempai and myself in a direct attack, while the second would infiltrate the Hyuuga compound and try to make off with one of three targets." His emotionless mask actually seemed to crack a bit as he raised his right eyebrow, but I plowed ahead. "I'm quoting them when say, "Orochimaru-sama is interested in the Byakugan ability and said to take one of the teenage heirs, or if that proves impossible to take the sealed prodigy".'" He frowned at me.

"That makes no sense, not only would it be harder for them to subdue Neji but what would Orochimaru do with him? He carries the caged bird seal on his forehead." I just rolled my eyes a bit at the brush off he'd just given both his daughters.

"Hinata isn't half as weak as you think she is but since I didn't come here to argue with you about how strong Hinata-chan has become let me get straight to the point. I wanted to see you, because I think that Orochimaru may have already been studying the Byakugan if he's prepared to go after Neji. It could be one of two things that I've come up with."

"One, he wants a backup host body and picked Neji, or two, he thinks he can remove the seal." Hiashi looked shocked at this.

"Now we know that Orochimaru lured the remaining Uchiha to him because he wishes to use Uchiha, Sasuke as his next vessel for the body transfer and so that he can get his hands on the Sharingan, which is why he gave him the curse seal. I've studied Tsunade-sama's diagrams of his seal, and have first hand experience with studying it from the only other person known to have survived receiving it. And let me tell you, it is the most complicated piece of work that I've ever seen. It weaves throughout the entire body, including the brain like a parasite living off a host. So I think that due to his knowledge of complex seals and the human body, Orochimaru has possibly figured out how to remove it, and what's more is he might already know a great deal about the Byakugan and the Hyuuga. What if he knows your secret technique that activates the seal on branch family members allowing him to paralyze and kill those branch family members in his way and making it so that they can't defend the head family or themselves?" He stood there in a shocked silence just staring at me as I paused in my dialogue. I plunged forward while he was still shocked into silence. "And, what if going after your daughters is only a move to distract you and everyone else to his goal of going after Neji, what if he's the real target? He is after all more outwardly powerful, as well as being a man which in all probability would make him preferable to your daughters if Orochimaru did want to use him as his next container. In which case my theory that he can remove the seal is even more justified being that Orochimaru would never purposely takeover a body with a weakness. This means if he wants to take over Neji's body, he would have to have the ability to remove the seal. That's why I believe he already has extensive knowledge of the Hyuuga and the caged bird seal." I finally stopped talking, and just looked at the tall and usually stoic man. He just stood there staring at the papers in front of him for a few minutes, no doubt thinking about all the information and theories I had just thrown at him.

"So you believe that the Hyuuga are potentially in a very dangerous position." He stated when he again spoke, his words clipped and precise.

"I believe that Orochimaru will come up with a different group of fools to try another plan to attempt and yes if your secret jutsu can kill branch family members then I believe all of you are in real trouble. Orochimaru is smart, and can find another way to get what he wants, he did with the Sharingan after all. But if you let me, as a medic-nin, I can study the seal and tell you whether or not there's any real possibility of Orochimaru and Kabuto removing it."

"Absolutely not!" He growled, reminding me of Sasuke and how he would growl and snarl like an animal whenever he was angry with Naruto. "If I allowed anyone to examine the seal, it would be the Hokage. She has a vast amount of medical experience much more so than you in the number of years she's served our village. Besides that, there is the fact that she can be trusted to keep the secrets of the Byakugan safe." I just rolled my eyes, not really caring for the man to begin with I didn't care what he thought of me.

"Perhaps I don't have over fifty years worth of practice under my belt, but you can ask Shishou and she'll tell you that I've already surpassed her in several of her specialties. Besides, she's the Hokage, she doesn't do research like this – that's what her apprentice is for – which is why she gave me permission to talk to you about this and why she didn't call you in for a briefing about this personally, she let me handle this for a reason."

"The knowledge of the Byakugan is a village secret and one of our most valuable trump cards, I don't know you nor do I trust you. I will speak to the Hokage about this and have her look into the possibilities. I'd thank you for informing us of the danger and your theories, but really it was your duty as a leaf ninja to so inform us and the Hokage. You may leave now." He made a shooing motion with his hand like I was some naughty puppy dog that he had just reproved and was now sending away.

"Fine, that's your decision. I've done my duty, you only have yourself to blame for wasting your own time going to see the Hokage. When you want my help, you can ask Hinata where to find me, Hyuuga." I bowed again in a sarcastic gesture and then left, leaving his door wide open and ignoring the startled looks on the faces of the two young girls that were plastered to the opposite wall.

I thought I saw a small smile on the face of the man who'd led me inside, but I wasn't sure. And what would he think was funny anyway? That I'd told off the head of his clan or that I'd been treated like a cheap tool?

I went back to my lab to try and distract myself from my all encompassing anger. I started working once more on the idea I'd come up with to infuse bandages with the green healing chakra. If I was successful, these would work like a substitute medic, or a medic's aid. In an emergency field situation these could be used to temporarily seal wounds closed and stop bleeding, they could also be used as a helpful healing agent to prevent death in dire situations until the injured party could get back to have the serious injuries properly taken care of.

Earlier in the year I'd finished developing a chakra pill similar to the blood replenishing and soldier pills that ninja's took with them on missions regularly. This pill though was made to seek out the internal chakra pathways, double the body's internal chakra and seal the chakra tenketsu so that no more of the precious life energy escaped (In a healthy ninja the tenketsu are constantly emitting chakra from the body, like the human body constantly sheds dead skin cells the chakra circulatory system is constantly recycling and emitting chakra to keep the pathways clear). This was followed by the chakra automatically transforming itself into the green healing chakra that medic-nins used and would then target the internal areas of the body that were damaged.

This pill however would not differentiate between damage, and therefore was a double edged sword in several ways. This meant that whatever injuries were found first, would be healed first. Whether it was a scratch on the lung or a punctured aorta the healing chakra couldn't differentiate the degree of damage. Though I had found that shoving the pill inside an open wound would work just the same as swallowing, except that the pill concentrated on the area it was placed in due to proximity. There was also the chance that if there was already a prior existing condition within the body that it could also become a target while the chakra ran its course. The doubled chakra while helpful was also harmful, if the patient didn't have enough chakra to completely heal the damage before the pill finished running it's course then the patient would die of chakra exhaustion. The pill was meant to be used in coordination with the team's medic who would have the knowledge and ability to take care of the ninja and assist in the healing of the damage from the inside out. They would be able to prescribe whether or not to use a food or blood pill to help boost the steady chakra buildup and body repair at the same time. It was meant to be a fast non-invasive emergency field surgery if you will. This would help to take care of the damage that would otherwise have killed the ninja. It would also, hopefully, lower the rate of fatalities, and increase our ninja mortality rates. Full recovery however would still need to be under the care of a proper med-nin and would take awhile.

The next big problem with the pill is that once taken it would not only transform all the patients' chakra into green healing chakra, but it sealed the tenketsu making it impossible for the patient to use any jutsu at all. In an ideal situation the patient once having taken the pill would (if taken in the dire circumstances that the pill called for) fall into a comatose state while their body was being repaired. This would prevent them from having to deal with the pain, as well as perhaps fooling enemy ninja's into thinking they were dead. The human body always works best when the host is asleep allowing the body the rest it needs and conserving energy and chakra to assist the body during its repairs.

That's how I came up with the idea for the bandages, if the pills were taken without any extra care the chakra pathways could easily exhaust the person's chakra and kill the patient trying to heal them. So I thought, if I had bandages that were already infused with the green chakra that could release extra chakra into the system they could work in conjunction with each other. It would be handy in other situations also when a medic wasn't available to go with a team on a mission or when the medic had very little chakra left.

But compared to the pill, the bandages were really hard to figure out. The bandages couldn't go inside the body to heal the damage and they didn't target the body's natural chakra pathways. They instead were designed to be wrapped around the injured party's open wounds and push chakra into the body to help regenerate living cells and close the wound or wounds. This was helpful as it would allow a lot of our elite and not so elite ninja's to partially self treat their wounds when away on missions and unable to get proper medical care immediately, namely, in emergency combat situations.

I was really anxious to finish this, especially considering the battle I'd just been in. If I hadn't been there the injuries of my teammates would have been fatal, as it was they would still be in the hospital for several months, Naruto would even have to relearn how to walk after he recovered from his broken back. I only hoped he would be able to forgive me.

I laid yet another bandage onto my worktable and infused it with my own healing chakra, and performed the containment jutsu. 'Dog, Hare, Dragon.' I thought as I formed those seals. Then I took a kunai and made a deep cut across my left arm. I hissed in pain wishing there was an easier way to do this.

Then I picked up the bandage and wrapped it around my arm watching for a minute as the blood started to soak into the bandage before performing the seals in reverse for the contained chakra to be released. 'Dragon, Hare, Dog' and I lightly touched the bandage with my right hand like I was releasing a genjutsu cast on myself. "Release!" I said quietly and then gasped in pain at the immediate burning sensation that flooded through my arm.

I sucked in my breath and waited for the pain to subside, and then I gently removed the bloodied bandage. The skin was raw and red looking like I had a major rug burn where it had rapidly been regenerated and infused with chakra.

"Hmm, still not right. Perhaps I need to use better concentration when infusing the bandages and healing orders…" I mused. This was technically a success. Any progress with the bandages was a success. I tossed some more idea's around as I thought about it. I walked back over to my drawing board tossing the bandage into the hazardous materials waste bin on the way and sat down to write my experience and mental musings among the already thick medical research journal.

It would only take a little effort to tweak my idea but I wanted to write down the findings of that last attempt I'd made.

I was about to go and give it another try with my new idea when I felt a presence behind me. I turned to find Tsunade-sama standing in the doorway, looking angry and frustrated. But that wasn't unusual, what was unusual was that she had actually left her office and come down to the research lab.

I raised an eyebrow as she walked toward the table I was currently working at looking over the assorted bandages. She stood there silently watching me for a moment as I unwrapped a long section of bandages and lay it down on the sterilized surface.

"You know you really shouldn't go out of your way to piss off the head of the Hyuuga clan don't you, Sakura?" She asked in that tone of voice that said she was thinking about sake' more than what she was saying at the moment, and was only saying it because it was expected and had to be said. I just shrugged in response and formed the seals to emit the green healing chakra from my fingertips again so that I could seal it into the new bandage with new intent.

"I told him that I didn't have time for the kind of research that would need to be done. I also told him about those brilliant transportation seals you came up with and recommended he talk to our leading seal research and analysis medic." I glared at her, she was trying to put me in a better mood so that I'd agree to whatever she and the Hyuuga had decided, but she just shook her head and sighed.

"You know you could've told me this would happen." I said still pissed off at the way I'd been treated. "That jerk owes me an apology. I'm not one of his subordinates that he can just treat like dirt when he feels frustrated."

"Oh, he wasn't that rude to you, you've just been hanging out with Naruto and his 'my way of the ninja' attitude too long. Most people still consider ninja's as nothing more than an unemotional tool." She replied reasonably. I just sighed and completed the second set of seals to contain the chakra inside the bandage I'd been working on.

"You know I have no problem with the Hyuuga clan in general, I'm not an Uchiha and I've got nothing against the fact that they have a powerful blood limit and therefore think their entitled to be egotistical assholes toward the rest of the ninja's in the village. I don't like the fact that he degrades his own daughter and therefore causes her to have a mental complex and doubt her own strength and self worth, but I've never said anything about it. Nope, not me. Nor have I mentioned the fact that he ignored his nephew for years and treats all of his relatives like unpaid servants. I've seen them, the entire clan is miserable because the guy is such a self-important jackass. But when he starts thinking he can treat me with the same disrespect and get away with it? No, that I won't stand for. He's not my father or my master and I hope to God that he never is." I finished my tirade and glared at the knife in my hand while looking for another place to cut myself so that I could test my next bandage.

"Here." Tsunade said holding out her own arm upon seeing what I was doing. I grimaced and pressed the throwing knife against her flesh in a deep cut, her face blanched a bit at the pain, but she didn't make a sound. Quickly I wrapped the new bandage around her arm and formed the seals to release the containment jutsu.

Tsunade let out a sigh of relief even as the bandage turned from a light green to a deep red. I touched her arm with my fingertips and gently pushed my chakra in underneath the bandage so see what was happening.

"Yes!" I yelled throwing my hands up and down and jumping up and down in excitement. Then I hurriedly unwrapped the bandage to see the smooth and unblemished skin of her forearm. "Yes! I am a genius!" I yelled strutting around the table. "No photo's please. Oh, I don't do autographs…" I mimicked the snobby rich person voice as I spoke, but I couldn't keep myself from laughing. Then Tsunade joined me and we jumped up and down together laughing until we near cried.

"I knew I'd picked the right girl as my apprentice when you came to me that day seeking a way to protect those important to you." Tsunade grinned at me giving me an affectionate hug and ruffling my hair affectionately with that pure Tsunade mischievous glint in her eye. "I guess I'd have to say that you have well and truly surpassed me, Sakura. You make me so proud, and jealous too, I wish I'd managed to think of this myself years ago."

"Well, I obviously still need to run a few more tests on the bandages but it looks like they're going to be a success. Oh, I'm so happy, you have no idea how hard it was to figure out how to make up that containment jutsu so that the bandages would hold the chakra. That was the hardest part of this ordeal. Of course once I've run a few more tests, I'll actually be able to start trying them and the chakra pills out on real patients." Tsunade hugged me again and gave me a light kiss on the forehead.

"Alright I'll let you get back to your work then, oh brilliant one." She gave me a wave over her shoulder as she exited the room and closed the door behind her since it was getting a bit noisy in the hall beyond. 'Naruto must be on this floor and awake.' I thought to myself as I grabbed a clear plastic sanitary bag to contain the successful bandage that I'd used on Tsunade. I might need it for future reference or just further examination.


	27. Chapter 27

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Ch 27

Before I Knew Ye…pt. 2

I had laid a fresh bandage out on the table and formed the seals to infuse the bandage with the green chakra when I felt the presence behind me.

This time when I turned around I found Hyuuga, Neji standing in the doorway, along with a very timid Hinata peeking out from behind him. He looked tired and dirty as if he'd just come back from a mission. I knew he was taking the anbu test same as I was and wondered if he'd just finished up his third task and returned home only to be sent out again without any rest to talk to me because his uncle was a spoiled pissant who couldn't apologize himself unless his life depended on it.

"Well, well. To what deity should I attribute the honor of having the Hyuuga prodigy and heir in my lab today?" I asked managing to keep the sarcastic tone out of my voice and continue my concentration as I imbued the bandage with my healing chakra.

"You know why we're here, Haruno-san." Neji stated with his usual patronizing tone as if I was a stupid child he had to humor. I'm sure he wished he could use that tone with Hinata and Hanabi at times, but they were head family members and he was beneath them so to speak even though they were first cousins and their fathers were identical twins. I just sighed and rolled my eyes.

"Konnichiwa Hinata-chan!" I yelled at Hinata leaning to my left so that I could see her around her tall cousin. Of course his lean muscular frame did little to hide the shorter and curvier girl behind him. She just nodded her head and returned the greeting.

"So _why_ exactly are both of you hear to see me? Does Hiashi-_sama_ need a special remedy?" I made sure that they heard the way I especially enunciated the Sama after his name. "I don't have any remedy for 'asshole' here in the lab, maybe you should check with the proctologists down the hall. Perhaps they could remove the large stick he has stuck up his rectum." I grinned, while Hinata just kind of ducked her head and mumbled a bit, I could swear I saw the corner of Neji's mouth turn up a bit as he repressed the urge to smile though.

"Hiashi-sama wishes us to express his regrets at the way the meeting he had with you yesterday turned out. He requests that while you study the caged bird seal and the Byakugan that you keep your findings confidential and share information only with himself or the Hokage." Neji said robotically, slightly swaying on his feet. I rushed forward automatically going into healer mode, and pulled him toward one of my examining tables forcing him to lay down on it.

"Here, Neji-san, go to sleep." I made a few hand seals and touched the sides of his temples and he was suddenly unconscious on the table breathing deeply in the throes of natural, if artificially induced, sleep.

"Sakura-san, w-what did you do to nii-san?" Hinata stammered nervously hopping from one foot to the other as she looked down at him then up at me and then allowing her eyes to return to him again. It was cute and annoying at the same time, like a little butterfly she delicately hovered over her cousin watching over him while he slept. She really was a ray of sunshine.

I pulled her away and shut her outside in the hallway telling her to go and comfort Naruto while I worked with Neji. "I'll come and get you when I need you Hinata-chan." She gave me a shy smile and scurried away in a hurry, if I knew her she would head to the flower shop first and then come back with a bouquet of flowers for him. Then she would pass out at the sight of her love lying distressed in his hospital bed, and be placed into the one next to him if it was free. I was beginning to think she did it on purpose just so she could sleep on him or in the same room as him.

I turned and walked back into the room and shut the door behind me. I moved inside the door and pulled the privacy curtain in front of the door so that no "curious" wanderers got an eye full.

I approached the bed and made the hands seals that would allow me to search his system for any injuries. I was disappointed when I found that he had only a few scratches and that they were all superficial. He'd probably done them himself in his exhaustion. I had thought for a minute I could just wake him up and have my first dual item test subject, but he just needed rest.

Instead I just removed his headband, which I knew to hide the green caged bird seal on his forehead and made the seals once more before putting my left palm on his forehead and the right on the base of his skull where the spinal cord connected from the base of the brain and ran down the neck.

Scanning inside the body was one of the easier things to do once you got used to the ebb and flow of chakra throughout the body and the sound of working organs.

But this time I was sending my chakra into the brain, the most complex and least understood organ in the human body. The brain required extra sensitive handling when chakra is inside, which was a second reason that I'd knocked the highly strung genius out. I had no idea what went on in his mind but I didn't need a lot of extra brain activity to distract me from what I was looking for.

As soon as I allowed my chakra to start flooding into his brain, I closed my eyes and began mentally mapping the pathways of the brain and the seal.

After a few minutes I stopped and went to my desk and pulled out an older notebook that I had marked "seal research", it held all the information I had on the seals that I had studied so far.

The cursed seals that were on both Sasuke and Anko were known as the 'heaven' seal. I'd never had the pleasure of working with Sasuke's cursed seal but I had taken a look at Anko's seal and there were several smaller sections related to the other five seals that we still had no names for. And we'd only gotten that information because anbu teams had recovered the bodies of Orochimaru's Sound Five cursed seal team. Though they were very little help as they were all different and I had no information about them to determine much more than the pathways that the seal took to cover their body. But since they were different types of seals they took different pathways through the body, but it also made me wonder if the seals conformed to their hosts' body. If that were true, all the information on Anko would be completely different that the information on Sasuke. It was so frustrating and had generated far more questions than it had answered, but it might be helpful here. The caged bird seal was complicated, but by comparison it was simple. Of course that was probably because I had information about it in the first place.

Another small section was reserved for the seals on Naruto's stomach. The only people who knew about the seals were Tsunade, Jiraya, Orochimaru, and the village Elders. No one else had any information about the seals, except perhaps the Akatsuki, but who knew what they knew. The primary seal used by the Fourth was the 'Shiki Fuujin jutsu.' But that was only the seal used to keep him physically contained within Naruto's body. Naruto had explained to me what happened when he sent his consciousness inside his body to communicate with the Kyuubi. The first seal used connected and contained the Kyuubi within his body and chakra pathways, which explained why he didn't have a mental connection with the Kyuubi, the Fourth had chosen to seal the beast inside his navel which was far enough away from the brain to keep Kyuubi from intentionally interfering within Naruto's brain unless Naruto was using Kyuubi's chakra. The second seal, which I still didn't have a name for, surrounded the other snake like seal and allowed Naruto to release the Kyuubi's chakra through his own will rather than having it solely under the control of the demon fox.

The information on that seal probably wouldn't be very helpful to me in this situation, the seals were very simple, and from what I could see they were near impossible to remove without killing Naruto. And even if by some miracle they were removed, the chances of Kyuubi escaping or being pulled out like the Akatsuki had planned were slim. But that was because the Kyuubi was anchored into Naruto's chakra pathways. The seals would have to be removed before extraction, the removal of the seals however would kill Naruto, and Naruto's death would cause the Kyuubi to die as well due to the soul tie through the first seal. It was some Impressive stuff.

I flipped to the back of the notebook and started sketching the diagram of Neji's brain and the pathways where the caged bird seal was attached. Like the cursed seal used by Orochimaru, the caged bird seal was incredibly complicated, but at the same time very straightforward. I'd only had a peek into Neji's brain and the extent of the seal amazed me with how intricately it wove through his brain. It was a maze of pathways, almost like a piece of art in its complexity and simplistic design.

Except for where it connected to the pain receptors and the death gate. I found that appalling. I hadn't had enough of a look inside his brain yet to determine how it was used or how they were activated but I didn't like my first glimpse, it was the only ugly blemish amongst the rest of the brilliance and symmetry that composed the rest of the seal.

I finished sketching the outline and then used the activation jutsu I'd come up with to help me with my recording process. I formed the seals and tapped the paper. Immediately the lines that I'd sketched became a lifelike three dimensional drawing that rotated on the paper allowing me to see every angle of the drawing and highlighted the lines of the seal as it wove through the brain and attached to different sections.

I carried it back over to the bedside where Neji lay resting and set it down on the table next to him before once again delving into his system tracing and memorizing the patterns that surrounded his brain. It was a matrix of sorts as it surrounded the brain and was woven into certain areas infiltrating nearly every section of his brain.

Unlike the curse seals used by Orochimaru this seal didn't pervade every iota of the brain, the seal instead surrounded the brain and attached only to the area's pertaining to sight, pain, and death.

Anko's seal spread through her system from the point of entry, the place where she was bitten, on the back of her neck and shoulder entwining with her chakra circulatory system and organs. Then from there it seemed to mold itself into her spinal column and follow the spinal cord up into the brain and interlace itself into every synapse and receptor. The seal patterns formed a grid of sorts over the brain like a wall keeping me out and I couldn't access or even see much of her brain beyond that point. But if my hunch was correct, the seal infiltrated her brain tissue and when used, eventually took over parts of her brain to function like a parasite in a symbiotic relationship to the host. This meant that the more the host used the seal, the more power the seal had over them. If I was right, then if she or Sasuke used the seal at its full potential, then the seal could possibly destroy their personality entirely causing them to become nothing more than a vessel for Orochimaru.

It was brilliant in a sick degenerated kind of way and I tried not to think about those patterns as I surfed through Neji's brain sometimes skimming the wavelike surface of the brain and sometimes delving deeper into a crevice to see what the ends of his seal were attached to.

I could feel Neji as he started to wake from his induced sleep as his synapses and receptors started to send more and more sensory information back and forth to each other. Probably telling him he was uncomfortable or cold or that something unnatural was happening. The invasion of my chakra within his brain was bound to disturb his unconscious mind and body.

Most systems saw it as a welcome visitor as the chakra was pervasive but not invasive, but only within the main body cavities, the brain was entirely different. To the brain, anything that didn't belong to the host body was a foreign and therefore dangerous object. It potentially could see it the way a body saw viral infections and tried to expel it. So, slowly I began to withdraw my chakra and then made some more notes in my research booklet. I'd just finished animating the newest notations when Neji suddenly opened his eyes and sat up. He blinked, looking around at his surroundings until he found me sitting on my stool next to the bed with my notebook.

"Did you have a nice nap?" I asked smiling up at the man warily trying to stare me down.

"What did you do to me?" He demanded as I set the notebook down stood to assist him off the table. He brushed off my helping hands and stood up himself as I pulled the paper off the table and threw it in the waste materials bin.

"I induced a sleep state, you were exhausted and I needed you to be unconscious the first time I looked at your seal anyway." I belatedly replied handing him back his forehead protector, he snatched it out of my hands and stood there glaring at me for a moment.

"Am I done for the day, may I go now?" He asked angrily, as if I had done something very offensive

"Neji-san, you are more than capable of leaving any time you choose to. I'm not forcing you to be here, I would think that you'd want to be here because this research is for your benefit, but if you don't want me to do it then I'll desist. I'll move on and look at Hinata and see if I can come up with a better solution to protect her and Hanabi." He just gave me his best death-glare. But having been the recipient of the Uchiha death-glare for years, made me all but immune, and so I just smiled serenely back at him. Or rather up at him as he was over six feet tall to my five foot ten inches.

"No, I will continue with the research, I…apologize if I have offended you." He said in a very stiff and wooden manner as if those words tasted bad in his mouth.

"Listen, Neji-san, you haven't offended me, and I'm really sorry if you're being forced to be here and don't want to be. But perhaps you can think of it another way. My research may find out whether or not this seal could safely be removed." I brushed his forehead lightly with my fingertips. "Despite the fact that I don't know you I would much rather find a way to remove the seal or improve it so that…well you're probably not interested." I said turning away and picking up my notebook as I turned back to my other experiment that still lay on the sterile countertop.

I'd completely forgotten about the smaller bandages that I'd lain out. I'd already infused one of the bandages with the chakra but the other four lay there just as they were when they'd been set down. So instead I put my notebook back into my desk drawer where I kept all my confidential notes and files, (that way I could use a specialized chakra block to lock the drawers shut and so that only I or someone more powerful than myself, like Tsunade, could open them) and turned back toward my bandage experiment.

Neji was standing at the counter with his Byakugan activated and looking at the bandages. I just smirked slightly, it looked like something had caught the genius' attention after all.

"That's another project that I've been working on recently, I call them Chakra Bandages." I said stepping up to the table top on his right and moving one of the bandages in front of me to begin the infusion process. I took a deep breath and formed the seals to emit the green chakra once more. It was quick since the bandage was small. I wanted to start trying this with different sized bandages on wounds of the same size to determine the amount of chakra needed in each different bandage. Then I could determine what type of bandages would best treat different types of wounds. Stab wounds, side slices, burns, and everything else I could think of. I formed the seals to contain the chakra inside the bandage and picked up the bloody kunai I'd already been using. "This is the part I hate." I said and sliced a deep cut across my left palm. I managed not to embarrass myself by crying or screaming, but I did let out a hiss of pain as I wrapped the small bandage around my hand and secured it so that I could form the reverse seals. I still needed to know how much chakra the bandages would need for certain types of damage while at the same time making sure not to waste any chakra, especially since this would need to be a repeatable process that didn't exhaust the medic on a regular basis. That would of course defeat the purpose.

It was painful to perform the seals with an open wound, but I managed and sighed a little as relief flooded through my throbbing hand. I felt the chakra seeping into the wound like cold water on a fresh burn. I used my right hand to push chakra into the skin and sense around the area and then pulled the bandage off. The skin was smooth unblemished and a natural healthy pink color.

"Impressive, Haruno-san. You have just replaced yourself, making medics in the field unnecessary." Neji said from my left as he watched my experiment. I couldn't tell whether he was being complimentary or sarcastic. But I nodded and smiled anyway.

"You ain't seen nothin' yet, Hyuuga." I said stepping over to a locked medicine case and opening it up to withdraw a glass jar of tiny pills that were identical in size and shape to the soldier pills, except they were a pure dark forest green color. I held up the jar in front of him. "What do you see?" I asked letting him hold the jar.

He scanned the jar and then opened it and pulled one of the pills out holding it about five inches in front of his eyes. "There is a lot of pure chakra packed inside much like a soldier pill but without the food and caffeine. There are also some aspects too tiny for the Byakugan to identify, these undecipherable aspects appear to be scattered throughout the pill. What is this?" He asked and I could tell that he was trying to sound uninterested.

"This is chakra surgery in a pill." I said grinning at him and taking the pill and jar back from him. I picked up my other notebook and showed him the diagram that I had drawn a few weeks ago. "See, the pill doubles the chakra, like the soldier pill, but _unlike_ the soldier pill it seals the tenketsu and puts the body into a comatose state and turns the patients' chakra into green healing chakra. Then the chakra begins working rapidly on the internal injuries inside the body. That's why I came up with the chakra bandages in the first place. If the medic doesn't have enough chakra to take care of the rest of the healing then the bandages can do it for them. Or in a situation where there is no medic and it's an emergency." I grinned again and snapped the notebook closed as I put the pills back in their case and locked it up again. "It'll be helpful in the other respect that medic-nin's aren't born everyday, and not just anyone has the ability to become one. Of course, these are still in the testing phase, but I can hardly wait to start testing them. It's very exciting. I'm predicting that the fatality rate alone will decrease by at least thirty percent if they're used properly."

"Hmm." Was all he said, it reminded me of Sasuke and for a second I felt like I'd gone back in time, I was standing on the bridge with team seven waiting for Kakashi and I would talk to Sasuke, jabbering away excitedly and he would steadily reply with his usual grunt, 'hn'.

But then I shook myself and wandered back to the door and pulled aside the curtain before opening it and stepping out. Neji was right behind me as I walked down the hall and stopped at the nurses' station to look at the room assignments. Though I really didn't have to, I could hear shouts from the other end of the hospital as Naruto shouted for a nurse to come in and help him with something.

Naruto was not the most fun patient to take care of, he wanted out of the hospital as soon as possible. He liked to eat ramen and train and then eat some more ramen. And he hated being cooped up in a bed. Most ninja's were that way, but Naruto was worse than most, the only ones to ever top his record tantrum was Sasuke and Neji, though their idea of tantrums meant scaring the bejeezus out of the nurses so that they ran screaming from their rooms. Naruto on the other hand just yelled loudly that he was fine and needed to get back to training or yelled loudly for ramen.

We walked down the hallway as a nurse scurried out of the room at the end with a red face. That meant that Jiraya was probably also in the room with Naruto and Hinata. So I quickened my pace and came around the doorway to see the three sitting quietly in the room, or more like Hinata was sitting quietly in the corner of the room pretending to be invisible while Jiraya and Naruto were yelling at each other about how perverted the legendary sannen was.

I could see Hinata getting redder the more they yelled, I was surprised that she hadn't passed out yet like she usually did. I just rolled my eyes at the antics of the other two juvenile ninja's that were now both trading comments on how great they were in comparison to the other.

"Hinata, I'm ready for you now." I said during a break in the yelling, causing every head to turn my way. Hinata bobbed her head and immediately got up heading for the door after bowing to Naruto and Jiraya.

"I h-hope y-you g-get better s-soon Naruto-kun." She said as she bowed to him and then walked out of the room toward me. I glanced briefly at Naruto but then quickly looked away, I didn't want to see the anger in his eyes, and after all, I was the one who'd put him in that hospital bed. Teammates weren't supposed to do that to one another.


	28. Chapter 28

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Ch 28

Before I knew Ye…pt. 3

Unconsciously I rubbed the deep scratch I still carried on my right hand from where It had been ripped open and I'd had to crudely put it back together again with ninja wire and stitches rather than chakra since by the time I'd been able to see to my own injuries I didn't have enough chakra left over to heal myself.

It still itched sometimes as the healing continued, and since it was a chakra burn, the healing tended to take longer than a normal cut. I tried not to itch it and instead rubbed it with the back of my palm as I walked down the corridor to my private office with Hinata for another examination of the inside of her Byakugan.

"So Hinata how was your visit with Naruto?" I asked as I opened the door to my lab and ushering her inside. She blushed a little and ducked her head mumbling some words that I couldn't hear. She came everyday to visit my disgruntled teammate and try to cheer him up through his recovery and rehabilitation process.

"You know the drill, please sit up on the examination table." I said in my professional detached medic voice before turning to my desk and pulling out the notebook with my research notes. I turned back to find that Hinata had taken off her usual hooded sweatshirt and lay back on the table with her eyes closed. She looked relaxed, I wondered why she could look that way around me. Maybe it was because I was a healer and had helped her out several times. I just sighed and walked over to her opening up to the section I'd started for her Byakugan information.

"I'm going to put you to sleep now, and begin work." I said, while forming seals. I noticed her shoulders tensing up a bit as they always did, but as I touched her temples to induce sleep she relaxed and let out a sigh. Forming some more seals I once again placed my palms on the forehead and base of the skull.

I closed my eyes as my chakra spread out over her brain, I headed directly for the ocular muscles and nerves. Her brain looked much like any other, until I delved deeper into the recesses of her brain to look at the hidden genetic data of the Byakugan.

Today I was delving even further that usual, and as my chakra met her circulatory system. That's when I paused, there behind her eyes was a block, her vision while healthy was being hindered because her chakra couldn't get to her eyes in the same way that Neji's did. There was a buildup of chakra inside the pathways leading to and from the eyes and in the sensory nerves surrounding the pathways. From what I already knew of the Byakugan the white Hyuuga chakra was specialized to be concentrated behind and inside the ocular muscles and nerves allowing their eyes to see in every direction and through practically any object, in general giving the user 360 degree vision.

However with the buildup inside these chakra pathways she was probably having a harder time just activating her Byakugan in the first place. Out of curiosity I pushed my chakra further into her system to examine other chakra pathways, what I found were area's that seemed completely clear and healthy and other's that were almost completely blocked off. Where they were blocked off chakra leaked out of the circulatory system and into the surrounding tissue. I frowned at that, using her Byakugan must cause her considerable pain just to activate it and she used it all the time, it was her primary tool as a ninja. But that was just how Hinata was, she never complained she just took the abuse until someone noticed or until she collapsed. Not to mention, this was potentially very dangerous for the young heiress, she could unknowingly kill herself trying to just live up to her father's unreasonable demands.

I was suddenly very angry. Someone should have noticed her difficulties sooner, she had to have been in pain for a long time. From the looks of these pathways she'd dealt with this all her life.

I'd disliked her father before but now I positively hated the man. But I couldn't do anything about him, or her situation right now. I was supposed to be examining her unsealed Byakugan, so I turned my attention back to her brain.

I spent a long time examining her brain, as long as I could stand, before pulling out and starting to jot down my findings. There was so much information inside her head that I could almost see how it worked down to the smallest details. Hell, I jotted notes down that could possibly allow me to develop a jutsu to mimic the Byakugan.

Hinata stayed asleep through the entire thing though, and finally I had to shake her awake because the exam was over and I'd even finished my notes and activated my sketches. Now I needed to talk to Hinata about what I had found.

"Hmm." Hinata stretched and moaned as if she were waking up from the best sleep she'd ever had. It made me feel kind of bad, I wondered if pain was intermittent in other areas too and if it interrupted her sleep.

"Hinata, I need to talk to you seriously for a moment." I said as she sat up and began putting her coat back. She paused and looked at me in apprehension, as if she was a puppy waiting to get kicked. I hoped the information about her genetic abnormality wasn't going to become another kick while she was down.

"So what you're saying is that it is in fact possible to remove the seal or at least parts of the seal while the body is alive." Hiashi stated still staring at some of the diagrams I'd drawn to illustrate the specific parts of the brain that were affected by the seal. The areas that I specifically investigated were the areas around the eyes and the death and pain sections, I still hadn't found a way to remove the section of the seal attached to the pain receptors.

"Hai, I can see sections that could easily be removed, I haven't had a lot of time to study it but given enough time I could, I'm sure, figure a way to remove it. I've studied the cursed seal extensively, and in comparison this seal is…well, an archaic piece of art." I finished apologetically.

"Not that it's useless, it's just not going to hold up against a brilliant mind like Orochimaru or Kabuto, that have years of experience with much more complicated seals. Besides the fact is that Orochimaru probably has just as much information on the Byakugan as I do, he's had a lot more time to figure it out. I'd really like to talk to whoever it is that does the seal and see if I can change or improve the design so that it's less likely that it could be tampered with or used against the Hyuuga."

"So, you cannot make it impossible to remove." He stated, the man had no personality, unless you counted the fact that I'd once seen him raise an eyebrow.

"No seal is perfect Hyuuga-sama, all seals can be removed. At least that's what I've seen in my experience, I was even able to figure out how to remove parts of the cursed seal. With some more work I'm sure that I'll be able to figure out how to remove more if not all of the seal eventually. The fact of the matter is that all seals are removable, there are of course varying degrees of difficulty to each seal. After all, a seal isn't natural inside the human body, the body tends to help at times when it can to get rid of what it considers a foreign object. Being able to remove the seal just depends on the person and the patience and time they're willing to expend on the project, that and the time frame for removing it."

"Hmm." He said and picked up two different papers with the diagram of Neji's brain on them that slowly rotated showing the ugly seal marks that stretched across the surface.

I badly wanted to talk with him regarding Hinata's condition, but she hadn't wanted to tell him. And since she was an adult by ninja law I had to respect her wishes, there was a reason for patient/doctor confidentiality. She thought that it would make him think even less of her for some reason. I'd tried telling her that she wouldn't be thought of as weak, but she was adamant about keeping it a secret.

I had cleared out her chakra passages to the best of my ability without invasive surgery, and shown her some chakra exercises that would help keep the pathways clear and stable so that she could use her Byakugan without pain. It solved the problem she'd been having with pain, for the moment. She'd even said that it had improved her vision with the Byakugan to the point that she could see the tenketsu without even trying hard. Prior to the partial unblocking she hadn't been able to see them at all and had to struggle to see more than fifty feet in any direction. Now her range was about one hundred feet, or so she said. She thought it would be helpful, but she still didn't want to risk the invasive procedure because her father would find out about the anomaly.

So I just stood there looking at him across his desk, just hoping for permission to continue with my research and development proposal, that wouldn't do anything but benefit his clan. It was so ridiculous, a couple of years ago I'd have just done my best behind his back to get what I wanted. Of course by now I understood just how much these people were under his thumb, they practically wouldn't go to the bathroom without permission. It sickened me to think that he might actually want to keep it this way. I just couldn't understand him wanting his own family to fear him.

"I will allow you to continue with this project you have proposed, but I want to be updated every week at least once a week on your findings and you're not to do anything with the seal without first consulting me." He said in his usual serious voice, except that it had a slightly threatening edge to it.

"If that was even an option I wouldn't need to be here asking permission." I replied angrily. "I hate, repeat HATE the way you treat your family, and they're all terrified of you! That's not what a family is supposed to be. So there's no real purpose in your trying to intimidate me, one I'm not afraid of you, two none of your so called relatives would ever dare to go against you, so using that threatening tone with me is purely for your own self image or enjoyment or whatever ego trip you get out of it." We both glared at each other for a minute. "Any second thoughts? I don't want to get started in my research and start making progress only to have you pull the plug. I don't appreciate being jerked around."

"I reserve the right to discontinue the project if I feel it is detrimental to the clan, however, I have already given my consent to continue the project, as I see it, it's in the interest of my clan that you finish this research. I'll send over all the relevant seal information to the lab tomorrow. You can go now and get a manicure or whatever it is that you do when you're off duty." He said waving me away magnanimously with his hand. I actually grinned, it was the first time I'd ever seen his facial expression change and that was a victory in my mind. Maybe there was a real man underneath that cold and stuffy pompous attitude. I picked up my file folder and walked to the door. I didn't bother telling him that I almost never did girly pampering for myself anymore. He didn't need to know about my family life or my personal history with my training, with Itachi or with my dysfunctional team.

"By the way," He said as I reached the doorway causing me to pause and turn to look back at him seated behind his desk. "If I say something I mean it, I don't waste my time with games. So when I say something, it's true." He just smirked at me and went back to work. I couldn't help it, I snickered and did a quick walk out of there before he could do something else to prove that he wasn't the total ice cube that I had originally thought him to be.

I burst out of the house before the complete giggles hit me, I just kept replaying that little smirk over and over in my mind as he turned up the corner of his mouth as he thought he had me in that last moment. Like he'd gotten the last word in on our argument, it was childlike, yet far too arrogant to not be called adult behavior.

I practically dropped my papers on the ground as I tried to stifle my laughter and walk out with some dignity. I pretty much failed miserably at the dignity part since I couldn't stop laughing, but I did manage to walk at least.

After that I went to the training grounds and I sparred with Tatsumaki until it got dark and he'd gone home to shower for some date that night, then I'd gone to visit my mother since I hadn't seen her in a while. I rarely visited since my father's death, it was just too painful. No matter how hard I tried to stop I always expected him to walk through the door whenever I was there. I visited with her for a little while before our conversation turned hostile, like it always did, then I headed home.

The best part of my day was when I opened my anbu placement scroll. It stated that I'd passed the three initial trials and had been selected to take part in the final exams.

I practically squealed with gleeful excitement.


	29. Chapter 29

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Ch 29

Bonding with the new Family

It was my experience that the potential for injury and death was high among any intense training group, so I'd brought my new Surgery Pills and several different bundles of Chakra Bandages. They had to be thoroughly tested on real patients in order to be considered legal. So as long as I received permission from the patient as a tester I could kill two birds with one stone while I was at the anbu training camp. It was the perfect testing grounds for my new 'toys'.

I arrived in the arena five minutes before noon, only to find that one other person was already there Hyuuga, Neji. Not really surprising that the stoic and impassive man had arrived early, though he looked surprised to see me. I guess he'd really bought that excuse I'd fed his uncle about a 6 week long mission. Ironically his uncle probably knew exactly what the mission entailed, so perhaps Neji was just surprised that I had shown up early instead of late like usual. Years of hanging around Kakashi's bad influence had irreparably damaged my sense of a timely arrival.

So I just shrugged and sat on one of the stone amphitheater benches near the bottom down by the three doorways leading into the mountain. I lay down on my back with my pack under my head, it was a bit larger than usual with all the different types of weapons they'd required. Of course, if it wasn't for that weapon sealing jutsu that Tenten had shown me, I would have weapons hanging off my pack that were too long to fit inside, and a lot more that were too big and numerous to fit inside my pack with the other things that I'd brought.

I'd brought my entire supply of Chakra Surgery Pills, but those didn't take up much space, and they went into the med-kit that was strapped to the top of my pack anyway. My extra clothes and uniform were at the bottom of the bag along with my necessary monthly items. I'd brought some blank scrolls that I could use for any number of purposes along with my research and development notebook to record any findings I might come up with when using them.

Soon others began wandering in, two came together and I wondered if it was coincidence and that they'd met along the way or if they had taken the exam together and thus could just walk up here jointly. Everyone but Neji and I seemed to be carrying extra weapons and had extra weapon storage hanging off their packs.

It was strange, I knew Neji but that was really it. There were several other candidates but I'd expected a much larger group to compete with for the slots that were available, instead I only had to compete with five others apparently. We sat around waiting until half past when two anbu in full gear decided to show up. They both wore captain regalia (a small 'C' stitched into the bottom left hand corner of their vests along with black laces at the sides instead of the matching grey of the normal uniforms).

The one was clearly male while the other could go either way. The unidentifiable one stepped forward and until she spoke you didn't know whether she was a muscular woman or a thin and wiry man.

"If I call your name follow me, the rest go with him." She jabbed her thumb backwards over her shoulder at the man and then pulled a scrap of paper out from under the edge of one of her long gloves. It was crumpled and she had to smooth it out before she could read it, then she cleared her throat and announced three names.

"Hyuuga, Neji. Taka, Hayai. Haruno, Sakura. You three follow me, and keep together." She looked up from her paper and crushed it in her gloved palm once more and stuck it inside her nin-do bag at her hip. I just stood and slung my bag over my shoulder as she turned and walked through the arch behind her leading into the mountain.

I didn't really take notice of whether or not the other two followed, though I felt them fall instep behind me. I figured I would meet that Taka guy later when we got to wherever we were going. And I already knew Neji, and he wasn't about to make small talk with anyone. Not that the Taka guy didn't try, I heard him behind me trying to talk to the unresponsive Hyuuga and stifled a snicker as everything he said was continually met with a perpetual silence. He didn't even get the usual Hyuuga "Hmm" or Uchiha "Hn" response to anything. Not so much as a single grunt or a sigh passed his lips.

It seemed to take forever to get wherever we were going as we traversed the dark tunnels in the underbelly of the Hokage Mountain. I'd never been inside the monument or any part of the mountain really, so I didn't know where this tunnel, or any of the others, led to.

It was a dark, dank, musty tunnel that kept crumbling around us making me extremely nervous at times when piles of rocks slid down the wall next to me. Though whatever her name was just kept walking along at a steady pace, I guess she was already used to this kind of thing.

I heard water rushing ahead, and thought perhaps we were heading outside near a river. But as the sound grew closer I realized that it was the sound of a large waterfall, and that perhaps the reason it sounded so large was because of the echoing throughout the caverns as the sounds bounced off the walls again and again building off of each other the sound compounding to reach a point where it caused a cacophony of sounds vibrating in crescendo all around the atmosphere of the tunnels and cavern we walked through.

I stared down as the wall of the tunnel on our left disappeared to reveal a large cavern. In the space beyond you could see empty space going up and down as we walked along the ridge of what must have been the tallest waterfall in all of the fire country. It was tall and while there wasn't a torrent of water rushing over the edge it wasn't a trickle either. Below we could see enough of a pool of water to qualify as a small lake. Light reflected off the surface from several open crags in the outer rock face of the mountain.

I just stared at it in wonder, it was so beautiful that I had to force myself to keep following the leader, I really wished I knew her name so I could stop calling her that.

We kept walking along the side of the trail leading down toward the lake around the circular cavern. Occasionally walking behind the waterfall and getting a bit wet from the spray. By the time we reached the bottom we were all soaked, and I was shivering and rubbing my arms. Of course what's-her-name was dry as a bone, she must have some jutsu to keep herself dry. I'd have to ask her about it.

Finally I was able to make out a brighter light ahead of us, we were just leaving the sound of the waterfall behind when we stepped out into a sunny patch of ground. We were surrounded by thick leafy tree's that were spread out over the forest leaving several open areas, which I assumed were for training or camping as they showed signs of combat and in another area there were the remains of a prepared place for a campfire.

Ahead nearly hidden behind the trees was a log cabin. We trudged in silence behind the woman until we were all facing the cabin. She stepped into the doorway and turned back to face us.

"You guys will be sleeping on the futon together in shifts, I get the bed. Before we go in and get settled I need to make a few things clear to you. As of this moment you are team Alpha, your code names are as follows, Yoake." She pointed to me. "Hiruma." She pointed to Neji. "And Yoru." She pointed at the last guy, his name I remembered as Taka, Hayai from when she called our names. I looked at him now to familiarize myself with him, he had black hair that was spiky at the top like Naruto's and a tan brown complexion with a cheeky Naruto grin spread across his features. His eyes were a hazel brown color with a hint of light green flecks in them. In general he was a good looking guy, and he seemed really friendly. He was a little shorter than Neji, but still taller than me by a few inches, and where Neji was the leanly muscular figure Taka was bulging with muscles that were currently going unused as he slouched in place with his hands in his pockets. It was a very Sasuke-esque pose, and made me a bit uneasy, especially with that loud Naruto grin and the fact that his body just vibrated with unused engergy.

"These codenames are how you will identify each other for the duration of the next six weeks, members of anbu have no identity except for their mask and codename. That is for the sake of efficiency and your own protection. During the next six weeks you will spend every single moment together unless I specify otherwise. You will eat together, train together, sleep together, play together and bathe together." That sentence really got our attention, Taka began snickering at her sleeping together comment and then threw his head back in full throated laughter when she got to 'bathe together' Neji and I just frowned. "Yes, bathe together." She reiterated. "If you can't completely control yourselves and work together no matter the conditions then you don't deserve to be anbu. There will be NO, I'll repeat it for the conveniently deaf among us, NO sex during the next six weeks. Masturbate all you want, ON YOUR OWN TIME, but you are not to engage in illicit sexual behaviors among each other or try to use your 'masculine charm' on me. It wouldn't work either way." I curled my lips under to prevent a grin from forming on my face. We hadn't even seen what was under the mask yet and she was already telling the guys not to try and hit on her, she was either really full of herself or so sexy that the warning was necessary. "For the next six weeks, you will all probably feel the urge to break this rule, but if I catch any of you...cavorting in pastimes of that nature…I will personally see to it that your stay here is not a pleasant one." I frowned at her words, it felt like the first time I'd taken the chuunin exam and the examiner Morino, Ibiki had told everyone to act like a first class ninja with the point deduction system for cheating, and I wondered if that was the message she was trying to convey.

"For the next six weeks you'll live off of what you can find in the forest, any food we get will come from the surrounding area so I hope you like eating rabbit and wild radishes because that's about it out here. There's a shower house behind the cabin but be prepared for a lot of cold water, just a nice little heads up. You can do your laundry in there." She put her finger up to her chin like she was thinking. "I can't remember if there's anything else, but if there is I'll remember it as we go, any questions?" She finished.

"Yeah, what's _your_ designation?" Yoru said with a grin.

"Me? I'm Tasogare." She said and pulled off her mask and revealed her face. Her hair was a cherry red color a bit darker than Sabaku no Gaara's hair but a lot longer. Her hair fell in waves down her back held back in a clip to keep it out of her face. Her skin was light but held a slight tan and her lips were a natural deep red almost as if she had on lipstick, but I knew that wasn't the case since it would've been smeared all over by the mask she'd been wearing. They curved up in a cupid's bow the plump bottom lip sticking out in a natural pout. Her nose was narrow and a shade too long for her face making her look sharp and drawing your attention past it and straight to her wide intelligent eyes. They were amazing, a dark indigo color with gold flecks in them. High cheekbones and an angular jaw framed her oval face. In a word she was…beautiful. Not that conventional beauty like Ino with her Blonde hair, wide blue eyes and big tits. But the rare kind of beauty that made guys stop and stare, she reminded me a bit of Yuri with her red hair, but Yuri never let her hair get much longer than her chin. That and Yuri was more like Haruko or a female Naruto. But Tasogare reminded me of Kakashi. She was straightforward, evasive, silent one moment and then blunt and abusive the next. I felt kind of like I'd been dumped into the anbu equivalent of team 7.

Then there were the codenames she'd given us, they would've been right up his alley too. The names all fit a theme. Tasogare meant dusk while Yoru meant night and Hiruma meant day while Yoake meant dawn. Also the names seemed to match their counterpart. Tasogare did actually look like the perfect picture of a sunset personified with her dark red hair, tanned skin and pastel eyes. And Hayai with his dark skin and black hair fit perfectly with the name 'night'. Then Neji whose entire family name scheme seemed to revolve around a sunny theme, not to mention his white eyes, made him perfect for the name day. And then mine, dawn seemed to fit me pretty well too what with my light skin, pink hair and bright green eyes. I guess my appearance could be described as the first break of light shining on an open field. But that was just my vanity talking.

"Actually I have something I'd like to ask or talk about really." I said speaking up, she just looked at me and raised her eyebrows.

"Go for it." She said lazily leaning against the doorframe.

"Well, I'm a medic and I know that the scroll said not to bring medication but I brought my med-kit and some things that I've been working on in the research lab." I said, pausing to pull out my medic kit and the bag containing the Surgery Pills and the Chakra Bandages, holding them up for her to see. "I figured that during the training we might get into a situation dire enough to need them, since many of the injuries I treat on a daily basis are caused during training. But I also figured I could test them here, but I'd need permission ahead of time since their still in the testing phase. So if it's okay I can tell you guys what they do and if there's an emergency situation then I can use them if the person is unconscious or doesn't have enough time to wait through my whole speech about what the pill could possibly do."

She just looked at me for a moment when I finished speaking and then put out her hand palm up as if I were to hand them over. I opened the bag and placed one pill in her palm, I wasn't about to hand over the entire bag to her. Not in this lifetime. Then I peeled off one of the bandages I had rolled together and placed that in her palm also.

She took the bandage and held it up to the light like she was looking at an X-Ray in the hospital. Then she performed a series of seals and closed her eyes while holding each item in her palms. I was guessing that it was some sort of jutsu that allowed her to examine or perform an analysis on an object based on one of the five senses, such as smell. Either that or she had a blood limit that I didn't know about that allowed her to look into objects similar to Hiruma's Byakugan. When she finally opened them again she looked at me with surprise in her eyes.

"What do these do exactly?" She said with careful measured words and an even tone that negated the curiosity in her eyes.

"The bandages are called Chakra Bandages, they have green healing chakra trapped inside with the order to, once released, to infiltrate the wound they're surrounding and help regenerate the damaged cells until the bleeding stops. They pretty much can't be used the wrong way, and even if they were nothing would happen really." I demonstrated by taking out a kunai and slicing a deep cut on my arm and then wrapping the bandage around it and releasing the chakra till the bandage had gone from green to red. Then I pulled off the bandage to reveal the healthy and new slightly pink skin. Red took my arm in her hand and turned it over and touched the area where I'd cut myself. She nodded and then stepped back.

"These are called Surgery Pills." I said holding up the bag and pointing to the one that Tasogare was still holding. "These can actually be dangerous if used incorrectly. They're designed to be used in dire or extreme emergency conditions. Think of it like a healing version of the Soldier pill. You can take it orally, anally, or via open wound. It doesn't matter so long as the pill dissolves. It's designed to target the chakra circulatory system and shut down the tenketsu keeping any chakra from leaking away. Then the pill takes over and turns all the chakra into healing green chakra and begins healing the body from the inside out. It doubles the existing chakra and puts the patient in a comatose state while it works, and even if the patient doesn't fall asleep, they can't use any of their chakra. It's made to be used only when a medic is around to help heal the body from the outside as well, or with the Chakra bandages. This is because if the patient doesn't have enough chakra it could kill them while trying to heal them because it would exhaust the chakra within the body."

Everyone was looking at me now like I was crazy. I didn't know if they just thought that I was stupid thinking that would work or if they thought it because I'd developed something with such potentially dangerous side effects.

"I'm not nuts!" I said shaking both items. "They're perfectly safe when used properly, I just have to prove it!" I said snatching the pill back from Red and replacing both the bag and bandages in my med kit.

"If I become injured to the point where you feel it is necessary then you may use that pill on me." Hiruma said in his usual flat voice. I gave him a grateful smile and looked at Tasogare and Yoru hopefully.

"Yeah, sure why not." Yoru said with a smile. "You said it was safe, so I'll leave that up to you, just make sure to take good care of me when I'm better." He said grinning in a bold leer at me, and I smiled and rolled my eyes.

"Hmm, I don't see the harm in trusting you on this. But if something like that happens and I die, I'm letting you know right now that I'm coming back to haunt you." Tasogare said seriously. I grinned excitedly, I had everyone's permission. I could've jumped up and down clapping my hands.

"Anyone else have any questions?" Tasogare said impatiently as if she really didn't want to be there but was being forced. It kind of reminded me of the times when Kakashi would put down his book and order us around, when all he really wanted was to get back to his dirty porn novels. I never understood his obsession with them even after I'd took it upon myself to stealthily read some of his one of the few times I was able to get the copy-nin on an examination table. They were alright but nothing that I'd walk around town reading.

"No more questions?" She asked standing up straight once more. "Okay, let's get going. First off all three of you get to clean the inside of the cabin, then you get to set up traps and find whatever we're eating tonight, after that we'll do some training. Check back with me when you've taken care of that stuff." She said and threw her bag into the cabin. She then proceeded to pull out an orange Icha Icha book and open it to the page with the folded corner.

"Aha! It's the female version of Kakashi!" I yelled pointing at her, reacting like I'd once done to Kakashi when he was late and came up with some ridiculous excuse. Like the one he'd once given us about how he'd had to outrun a herd of stampeding penguins on the way to the market for some vegetables.

"Now that was just rude, you really shouldn't point at people." She said walking away just like Kakashi would and jumping up into a tree to sit on a limb while reading her dirty book. I just groaned and hung my head as I trudged into the cabin. I had a very bad feeling about the next six weeks.

"Hey Yoake." Yoru said as we threw our packs down inside the door, I looked up at the black haired Naruto and Sasuke impersonator.

"Yeah?" I said trying to be congenial, I didn't really know him so I thought I should give him the benefit of the doubt. I mean he could be really fun and intelligent or…or he could be a young version of Jiraya.

"So, you meant Hatake Kakashi right? How do you know the copy ninja?" He asked suggestively.

"He was my jounin sensei when I was a genin, and later I was part of team Kakashi as a chuunin." I replied trying to ignore his leer. I just walked past him and into the one room cabin. There was a bed and side-table up against the far left wall in the corner and a set of shelves in front of it directly to my left holding the bed linens, blankets and one large futon. To my right was an empty area of open floor with a long counter lining the entire wall of the cabin with a row of cabinets and drawers underneath. Then to my immediate right was a table with several chairs shoved up against the front wall. Probably for strategy and going over maps during the course of our training. Everything needed to be either washed or aired out. So I stripped the bed of its dusty sheets and hefted the futon onto my shoulder and lugged it outside. I hung the futon over a tree and then took the sheets and blankets around back to where Tasogare had said there was a shower house.

It was a small five by five tiled room with a drain in the center and four shower heads. It was going to be awkward with all of us in there naked together. Outside there was a laundry bucket large enough to bathe a small child in, I assumed that was for the laundry. So I took it inside and turned the shower head on and filled it up with water and then threw the sheets inside and used a jutsu that swished the sheets around in the soapy water to get them clean. Afterward I used a wind jutsu to dry them as they hung from a tree branch. I swept the cobwebs out of the corners while I was there and then went back to the cabin to find the guys standing around pushing dirt around the floor of the cabin with a pathetic excuse for a broom and chasing dust around on a counter with a wet rag.

"Jeez, haven't you guys ever cleaned before in your entire lives?" I knew Hiruma had servants to take care of that kind of stuff but I didn't know anything about Yoru and as genin they really should have done enough cleaning to figure out how to do it by now.

"I clean only when I have to." Yoru said, Hiruma of course just shrugged and kept attempting to sweep.

I rolled my eyes as I made the bed with the fresh sheets. "Just use a cleaning jutsu or some adaptation to take care of this crap a bit quicker." I grumbled back at them before heading back outside to take care of the futon. I glared at Tasogare as she just blithely turned the page in her dirty book. I concentrated some chakra into my fist and hit the futon a couple times getting all the dust out of it a bit quicker. I just had to be careful not to beat the stuffing out of it literally.

Then I took it back inside only to find the cabin was in a state of emergency. Half the cabin was soaking wet and the other half had all the furniture blown up against the wall and dirt was everywhere. I dropped the futon in shock.

"What the hell?" I looked around at the carnage and then stared wide eyed at Yoru and Hiruma who both looked guiltily back at me (a real shocker since I hadn't thought the Hyuuga could express emotions).

"Uh, we tried to take your suggestion. It didn't work real well." Yoru said shuffling his feet and shoving his hands back into his pockets while Hiruma simply walked stiffly over to the now practically destroyed furniture and started trying to set it aright.

After some mumbled explanations on both they're parts I figured out that Yoru had done a Water jutsu trying to clean the cabin faster which had gone wrong, and then Hiruma had tried to fix it by using a wind jutsu trying to dry everything. Instead of drying everything though it had just blown everything around and broke things and turned the cabin into a muddy mess worse than it had been. They'd tried to use real jutsu's in full form on the cabin. I was surprised they hadn't blown a hole in the cabin wall with their idiocy. So I showed them some jutsu's that I used at a reduced power to get rid of the dirt on the floor and then wash it without destroying the place we later wanted to sleep in. They of course had to go fix the furniture that they'd broken.

So instead of us all setting traps and looking for dinner I was the one looking while they fixed the broken cabinet and table and chairs that had been inside. I set a few small traps for rabbits and other small animals that the trap could hold. Then I looked around the area a bit and found the patch of radishes that some enterprising person had apparently planted a long time ago. Instead of picking some I wandered around looking among the grass and trees for anything that would work as a vegetable.

I found some wild mushrooms, and some herbs that I could use to brew a tasty tea. I looked around some more but didn't really find anything more that I could use in a dinner. Though in contrast to the lack of real food, the area seemed rife with roots that you could suck on or chew as a snack, like picking a lollipop or a piece of licorice. So I grabbed some roots that I liked and put them in my pocket for after dinner, if someone wanted some I would share but not everyone liked that kind of stuff. I knew Naruto would have a conniption about not being able to have Ramen for over six weeks.

I grinned as I made my way back to camp and watched as the two men argued while working together to put the table back into one piece. They both were over there sweating in the heat of the early afternoon. They'd taken off their jounin vests and the long-sleeved shirts that they'd worn with them. Yoru was naked from the waist up clearly showing off his tan line free physique, while Hiruma wore a mesh undershirt over his extremely white frame. The two of them were almost polar opposites. Yoru was a dark caramel brown with large rounded muscles and defined Pecs and Abs. He looked kind of like one gigantic mass of muscles. On the other hand Hiruma looked like he'd never seen the sun in his life. His muscles were defined but trim and contoured to his body like water had run down his rock hard form smoothing out the contours until the excess was rubbed away and all that was left was the raw power underneath. In contrast Yoru's large rounded muscles looked positively soft and squishy. They truly were night and day to each other.

I'd have to remember to not tell Ino that I had once again lucked out in the sexy teammate department. She'd have a fit that I was trying to become anbu anyway, not that she wouldn't eventually find out, and on top of that she would have a conniption that I'd gotten such good-looking and…well built teammates. Though I could now brag that I'd seen Neji without his shirt on, and I could drive her nuts not telling her how.

So I walked up and looked inside the cabin. It was decent and in order, the broken furniture that had been fixed had been put back inside where it belonged, and almost everything was back where it had been before they'd tried their jutsu's from hell. I walked back over to where the guys were still arguing about the jutsu that would work best on the table leg that had broken off. Instead I just bypassed them both and flipped the table onto its back. Using an earth-based jutsu I caused a clay-like substance to form on the ground out of the dirt, I then scooped it up and smeared it around the ends of the broken table leg pieces. I wiped my hands off and formed the second set of seals where the clay hardened until it was harder than granite.

I picked up the table and flipped it back over to stand on its legs and walked away leaving the guys standing there giving me silent death glares. I just ignored them and walked over to Tasogare who was just absolutely oblivious to everything. Of course if she was anything like Kakashi, she knew everything that had transpired during our cleaning without moving or batting an eyelash.

"So what kind of training did you have in mind?" I asked stepping up under the tree she was sitting in. Tasogare looked up at the guys carrying the table back to the cabin and frowned.

"Had a few mishaps with the cleaning, eh?" She said folding the corner of her book and tucking it away in the nin-do bag at her hip.

"Didn't you expect that though? I mean really, guys cleaning?" I replied, though even as a genin Naruto and Sasuke had been able to clean. Of course both of them had lived alone for several years and did their own cleaning, so that was expected. I just hadn't realized how bad all the other girls had it when they got paired up with boys that had families and never had to do any chores growing up. Of course then there were the girls like Hinata who didn't do chores either, so no one on team 8 had any experience cleaning if I was right. Those guys were all from bloodline clans and were either heirs or second in line, they hadn't had to wash so much as their underwear in the bathroom sink, let alone trying to adapt a water jutsu to clean the floor or wash dishes.

"Yeah, lots of idiots out there don't even know how to wash their armpits let alone sweep and mop the floor. But I'm not sleeping in a dirty place. And since it's like training for them, it works for all of us since I certainly don't want to clean it myself." I grinned at her as she jumped down, I completely agreed with that. I would have pitched a fit if I had to clean the cabin by myself. "So let's get to the training." She said rubbing her hands together. I hadn't even heard the guys come up behind me, but I knew they were there without turning around. "We'll start by pairing off into doubles for smaller training. Yoru you're with me, and that leaves Yoake and Hiruma." She said pointing at the two of us. I merely raised my eyebrows, I thought the entire six weeks was supposed to be some team togetherness thing from what she'd said earlier.

"First we're going to see your fighting styles and look at your strengths and weaknesses. You two know each other a bit from my information so I put the two of you together, which should make it easier to see those in the two of you. I want to see your fighting styles so no ninjutsu or genjutsu." She said pushing her way through us and heading toward the open field about a hundred feet off to the right of the cabin.

The three of us just looked at each other as she walked away. I wanted to pass the tests here, so I just shrugged and followed her through the trees.


	30. Chapter 30

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Ch 30

Completely Uncomfortable

We'd spent the day sparring with each other to see each other's strengths and weaknesses, apparently Neji had a blind spot on his back, but you could only tell because he protected his back much more than he did his front, sometimes even leaving himself wide open in favor of protecting whatever he couldn't see behind him.

I, on the other hand tended to not bother with sight and relied on sound and feel to tell me where my opponents were attacking from, so that left me weak against attacks that were soundless. Like kunai hurtling at me from behind or above.

But what I hadn't realized, was that we were ALL, weak against sexual stuff. Of course we didn't realize that until later when we all had to tromp over to the shower house and take our, thankfully, cold showers.

I had grabbed my shower kit and towel, along with my sleeping shorts and shirt to change into after I got out of the shower. I was a bit nervous because we all had to get in at the same time from what Tasogare had said. Hell even Yoru was looking a little nervous right about now, and he was a pervert, of course maybe that had something to do with the fact that Tasogare had kicked his ass clear across the field and back again during their sparring session. Apparently he left a lot of openings in his defense.

We all tromped over to the shower building, very un-ninja-like, with Tasogare in the lead. She threw her towel down on the bench that was just outside the door and started undressing. I figured that was because everything would get wet if we were all inside with the four of our showers on at the same time, the spray would soak everything. So I threw my towel down next to hers and began unzipping my vest and slipping out of it. I was glad to finally take off the weighted vest that I used for training and let it thump heavily to the ground next to my shower bag.

I noticed the guys were still just standing there, but I tried to ignore them as I slid off my sandals and shimmied out of my loose fitting jounin pants. I was glad that I hadn't been wearing my weighted gloves and shin guards during training, I'd had a hard enough time evading the fast Hyuuga with only my vest on. But I was thankful for it as it had prevented him from shutting down my tenketsu due to the weights sewn inside it keeping his fingers from penetrating the tenketsu spot he needed to which just happened to be over my heart.

I turned my back and pulled my chakra bra over my head and rubbed some circulation back into my breasts as they bounced free from their constraints. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Tasogare frowning at me.

"The point of showering together is to get comfortable with each other." She looked back at the guys when she said this, who were still staring at us fully clothed, Yoru had his mouth wide open at the sight with blood streaming down from both nostrils as he stared at both us women who, I'm sure, looked like something from a girl on girl Icha Icha novel right now.

"This is only a small taste of the naked training that we do as anbu. Most seduction missions that come into Konoha are done by anbu level ninja only, and yes you two, that means you as well, if you can't tolerate seducing another man then you might want to just give up right now. Specially you Hiruma, you're real pretty with all that long hair, you'll get lots of seduction missions whether it's for a woman or a man…" She let her words trail off as both men stared at her in horror. "Here during the next six weeks we have specialized training for those who will become anbu, how to properly seduce your target of the opposite gender and of the same gender. Exercises that involve touching someone sexually of the same gender!"

I stared at her for a moment and then took a step back from the attractive, slim, and very nearly naked anbu right next to me. I definitely wasn't comfortable enough yet with any of these people to touch them. Not that I thought she would just suddenly reach out and start molesting me or anything but I decided to keep a few feet between myself and our new team leader.

Tasogare just turned and stalked into the shower house still in her thong. She'd apparently taken off her bandage chest wraps when I wasn't looking. I walked in after her following her example and leaving my underwear on, though mine covered a lot more than hers did.

For the next few weeks we had to live off of the land and train not only our bodies for physical battle, but our minds so that we could take on the duties tasked to us whether it was strategy, survival training, a rescue operation, an assassination, or a seduction.

We were all having a hard time with the last one. It wasn't really difficult to force yourself to seduce someone of the opposite sex, but when it came to the same gender and you were strictly heterosexual, then it made things much more complicated. Hiruma, as I had to keep reminding myself to call him, seemed ready to give up and quit with his application into anbu, but he was stubborn, as were we all apparently. We all just seemed to be gluttons for punishment since none of us would admit defeat.

I forced myself to touch his body and learn even when he remained stoically silent what aroused him, the same with Yoru. Both men were vastly different making it harder for me to distance myself from my actions every time I had to touch one of them sexually. Somehow I managed to do it and still keep my sanity.

But when it came to touching Tasogare, I just couldn't seem to pretend I was at home in my bed with my crush in there with me…go figure.

I knew how to touch myself, I was a kunoichi and a woman, I had to know my own body inside out so that I could function as a ninja, especially as a med-nin. But with Tasogare, I just couldn't seem to get anything right.

The first time I had to place my lips on her body I felt the sudden urge to roll off her and throw up in the bushes nearby. But this was a part of being a ninja, I had to learn to excel at this or else I wouldn't be accepted into anbu, and I'd be damned if I was just going to roll over and cry.

I'd sworn long ago, that I would never again allow myself to be weak and let my team down. Or let myself down, I was going to get stronger, and if that meant that I had to touch another woman then so be it. I wouldn't fail, this would make me stronger, and it would at least give me a stronger stomach anyway, I thought to myself wryly.

But there was never any real threat here, there was always a safety net. Not one of us ever had true intercourse, though by now my views of sex had become slightly skewed on what was and wasn't sex.

When we weren't all having group fondling and masturbating sessions, something I never thought I would do in front of another person that I wasn't married to, we were pounding each other into the ground in vicious training matches. We also did a lot of stealth and strategy exercises as we played the dangerous versions of games such as 'capture the flag' and 'hide and seek'.

Sometimes we were even pitted against another anbu training team (though I hadn't realized there were more than two) in simulations where we needed to retrieve a hostage, obtain a scroll, or needed to seduce someone for information. I had practically perfected the art of seducing men for the sake of the mission, of course, we didn't practice much with the other kind of seduction, but maybe that was because their wasn't anyone in the training groups that would welcome being seduced by their own gender or at least none that would admit to it.

After awhile I realized that everything we did was an exercise in teamwork, when you got right down to it, Tasogare was apparently molding us into a four in one team where we could work as a cohesive unit with one mind for the four of us. That was probably the final test in the anbu exam, to see if you could work within the confines of a completely new team and take orders from someone who was your superior and yet at the same time, your equal. It was really just another version of the bell training that Kakashi had given team 7 so long ago forcing us to recognize our own strengths and weaknesses and forge a bond between the three of us brats when we knew next to nothing about the world.

But even with all of these exercises I wasn't prepared when Tasogare, in our fourth week, stated that we would be going on a few trial missions as a team. And when she meant missions, she meant seductions.

Her seduction mission was us leaving the forest for the first time in nearly five weeks and going to a bar in another large village. We checked into a local hotel and Tasogare procured clothing for us to wear, since none of us had brought civilian attire.

I found myself wearing a short jean skirt belted at mid hip and a revealing black backless halter top along with knee length stiletto boots. I just sighed in resignation, of course I wasn't half as disgusted with my attire as Hiruma's. He was wearing a neon green silk shirt, tight fitting jeans and cowboy boots, the neon shirt was just plain tacky. I'd also had to help him put in a pair of civilian contacts to cover up his unusual white eyes. They were a deep blue now.

We both stood there trying to look anywhere but at our awfully revealing, or just plain awful clothing when Tasogare and Yoru came out of the bathroom. We both gawked.

"How come you get to wear so much clothing?!" I whined, taking in her knee length black sheath dress and shiny red pumps. She looked conservative and business like while we just looked sluttish and tasteless.

"Yes, why do we have to wear this crude clothing and you get to wear that?" Hiruma started angrily pointing to Yoru's three piece suit. They looked like a couple going out after work for a few drinks before checking on their corporate stock. In comparison the two of us looked like dressed up rice farmers.

But she just smiled back at us, cocking her head to the side. We continued to glare at the both of them, Hiruma with his arms crossed over his chest and me with my hands planted firmly on my hips.

"Look, if you didn't notice, Yoru and I are wearing middle to upper class clothing. We both could use the experience in fraternizing with people of a class higher than our usual rank. You two are wearing middle to lower class styles of clothing. Both of you coming from clan family backgrounds and could probably use the experience of trying to speak with the 'common folk'." She said calmly, but the way she'd said 'clan family' I suddenly snapped my head to attention and strode forward grabbing her by her expensive black dress and pulling her closer before hissing threateningly into her face.

"What do you know about the Haruno clan? Did Godaime tell you about it? And who do you think you are to judge me?" I was so angry that I wanted to shake her, but I merely gripped her clothing while Tasogare stared calmly back at me and pried my fingers from the now wrinkled from of her dress.

"I know very little actually. And I'm not judging you. I was informed that the information was classified and only given out to people in a 'need to know' position. And the fact that I and some others would be spending six weeks alone with you, I needed to know." She spoke quietly and calmly as I felt my anger fade and turn into guilt. I excused myself and shut myself in the bathroom for a few minutes, I placed a seal on the door that would block the Byakugan and ran the water in the sink to drown out any noises that I might make.

I carefully washed my face and reapplied my makeup, it helped distract me from my powerful and dangerous emotions. Inner Sakura as screeching and shouting causing my head to pound and I tried to block her out and began rubbing my temples to alleviate the headache I suddenly felt.

I counted and did some breathing exercises trying to calm down both inside and out. When I'd sufficiently calmed down enough to prevent myself from flying out of control and killing everyone, I removed the seal and went back out to my team so that we could continue with our mission.

I felt bad about keeping secrets from my teammates, but this was something that I just couldn't talk about. So I ignored the suspicious looks from Yoru and Hiruma and instead moved on to thoughts about the mission.

Hiruma and I would proceed to a certain bar called 'After the Happy Hour' a few blocks over and find our target or targets. Our information stated that a man by the name of Waru, Hatsuharu would be making an exchange of some important documents to his financier tonight. Our information stated that the woman was a tall blonde with green eyes and a small x shaped scar at the base of her neck. If possible I was to seduce and steal the papers from the man before the woman arrived.

Unfortunately when we arrived, Hiruma immediately spotted the woman talking to some man in a back booth that was in one of the bar's darkened corners. We probably wouldn't have even spotted them without his Byakugan. Due to his impressive sight, he could see that she tucked the small folder and a vial into her pants and bra.

So we waited, and when the man left I walked toward the restrooms that were, luckily, located down the hallway just next to her table. Hiruma on the other hand was walking back from the bar after getting a beer and our choreographed 'bumping into each other' resulted in both he and I tripping and knocking each other to the ground while the beer was airborne and landed in a splattering mess all over our target.

The woman elicited a shriek as the beverage splashed all over her clothing and soaked into her hair. She was wearing a light sleeveless purple sweater and a pair of pressed black jeans, that wasn't going to be fun for her to walk around in.

The woman immediately scowled and glared at the two of us who looked horrified from our place on the floor. We were immediately moving forward to apologize and help the woman get cleaned up.

Hiruma sputtered some very realistic sounding apologies while I did the same and offered to help her get cleaned up in the restroom.

In the end she simply sighed and walked with me into the restroom. Her sweater was soaked with the sticky alcohol so I recommended that she take it off and we rinse it in the sink a little and then ring it out and use a towel on it before sticking it under the hand dryer.

She didn't seem particularly receptive until I started making comments about how men were all clumsy fools…

"Yeah, I know." She said stripping out of her shirt and handing it to me as she stared down at my cleavage that was bursting out of my own halter top, I in turn projected a leer at her own B-cup breasts that were clad in a soaked turquoise brazier making the silky material practically see-through. I was actually flitting my eyes over her body looking for the vial she had hidden in her bra. I spotted it tucked under her left breast making it rise up a bit higher like extra padding in a push-up bra. "I gave up on men a long time ago, none of those barbarians could ever figure out how to satisfy me." She gave me a look and I gave her a wink and turned back to the sink with her sweater and began rinsing some of the beer out of her sweater.

But before I had turned on the tap, her hands circled around my waist and cupped my own breasts. I felt her planting tiny butterfly kisses down my neck and spine. I refrained from stiffening and sent myself a mental image of Hiruma standing outside the door and immediately tilted my head to the side and let out a small gasp of "pleasure". It really wasn't so bad with her behind me, I could just imagine she was a guy…

But I needed to get the vial and the envelope and switch them for the decoy papers we had been instructed to leave with her. So I twisted around and wrapped my own arms around her waist pulling her into me as I pressed my own lips against hers.

She gripped my ass and I allowed my hands to drift upwards gently teasing the skin of her abdomen until I reached her breast and began lightly kneading them.

She made a strangled sound from deep in her throat and I swallowed it into my own mouth. I pulled down her bra straps and lowered my lips to her nipple, flicking and teasing it as I pressed her body backward a bit so that her but rested on the sink counter, while trying to remember to continue massaging her other breast, even as I pulled the vial away and stuffed it surreptitiously into my hair. The woman was moaning now, and I hoped that no one outside could hear us over the music they were playing softly from a radio behind the bar.

I started pulling off her jeans, which was no mean feat considering that they were skin tight and drenched in sticky beer. Once I had them off though it was easy to distract her from the fact that I was taking the envelope and stuffing it into my knee-high boots. 'At least their good for something on this mission.' I thought as I felt her shudder and give out a last shriek in orgasm.

I wiped my mouth off and stood up once more. I grinned cheekily at her as if I though this was the best time of my life and that I was proud of getting her off.

"Maybe we should finish with your clothes, my friend is going to wonder where I've gotten to we've been in here so long." She just grinned back weakly and nodded as we turned once more to the sink and rinsed the beer off her clothes.

With the mission a success Hiruma and I made several excuses and left the tavern heading back to the hotel, the woman had asked for a phone number but I'd told her we were just passing through town and she pouted in disappointment. I still felt disgusted at having to do something like that. Taking advantage of other people was not my idea of a good mission, but when it came right down to it, all ninja's were just tools and whores, at least to the clients anyway.

As soon as we got back to the room we were met by Tasogare and Yoru. I stripped out of the offensive clothes and pulled out the envelope and vial and tossed them to Tasogare.

"Here, mission accomplished. Now if you don't mind, I am badly in need of a shower." I said and turned toward the bathroom and started up the water. I removed my makeup and then hopped into the shower, Yoru was pretty quick to step in behind me and start scrubbing his body. He already had a toothbrush in his mouth and I suddenly didn't need to ask. We stood there silently in the narrow confines of the tub between the wall and the shower curtain, completely naked, and scrubbed our skin as if we wanted to rub it off.

I had already washed my full body twice and was going for a third time when Yoru stepped out and grabbed some more toothpaste. I jumped out and grabbed my own toothbrush then and we both went back to frantically scrubbing and brushing.

I don't know how long we were in there, but it was amazing that the entire thing seemed completely natural. There was no sexual tension like there had been in the beginning of our training, we were just two individuals getting clean.

I grinned at Yoru with toothpaste covering my face and he just laughed and poked me in the forehead as I crossed my eyes and stuck out my tongue at him.

When we finally did manage to get out of the shower we both wrapped ourselves in the fluffy hotel robes and found that Hiruma and Tasogare had ordered room service. I clapped my hands I was so excited. Yoru just knelt down at the traditional table and began digging into the wide variety of dishes that were spread across it.

I on the other hand grabbed the sake' and some sushi and started alternating. Hiruma and Tasogare were civilized by comparison as they sipped their sake' and ate as if they had this kind of meal everyday. But that was probably because they'd been eating already when we came out. Hiruma picked up a plate of sashimi and handed it to me.

I suddenly realized that all the time we'd spent playing the game of 'what would you eat if you could' at our dinners, hadn't gone to waste. There was a smorgasbord of all our favorite foods and the things that we'd mentioned back at the camp. I guessed that meant we'd passed the teamwork test with flying colors.


	31. Chapter 31

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Ch 31

How in the world did that happen?

I came back to the present, jolted out of my reverie by Neji charging at me like he'd done so many times when we'd sparred together as a team.

He was running full tilt at me this time though, straight in a frontal attack. There had to be some trick, Neji never did attacks this obvious. It must've been because I was distracted with the reminiscing and he was trying to use that against me as a subtle mental attack.

I let him get in close and then grabbed his wrist and a fistful of his shirt and allowed inertia to do the rest as I fell backwards and kicked him over my head.

I rolled over and jumped to my feet once more facing the direction I'd thrown him and listening intently for any movement.

However instead of hearing the whisper of Neji's light shifting and steps, I heard much louder footsteps approaching. It sounded like a group of people, my housemates must've finally awoken and come after me.

But one thing about the Hyuuga in front of me is that he didn't like to be ignored, or underestimated. With a swift movement I received a kick to the abdomen for my lack of concentration and I flew backward a few feet and rolled once more to my feet crouched and ready to defend or attack depending on if I could ascertain where he was coming from.

I could hear the others coming louder now, it was obvious that Lee was with them as I could hear his boisterous voice, and it made it all the harder to hear Neji's silent approach. I couldn't sense him with my ears, so I reached out with my other senses and felt his chakra to my right about fifteen feet away.

Like any Hyuuga his chakra was strong and regulated due to his harsh discipline and chakra control from all the years of training as a child.

I moved fast, using extra speed to disappear and reappear behind Neji and strike at the blind spot at his back. He sprawled forward again evading most of the blow but I grinned anyway.

He still must've gotten a mouth full of dirt as he'd pushed himself out of the way, just a little bit of payback for that cheep shot he'd landed earlier.

I could hear him standing up and spitting out some dirt before changing into the Hyuuga stance. It looked like he was going to fight me seriously now. That meant that it was an anything goes fight now, though I liked to keep the blindfold on because it helped me to sharpen my senses. The first thing I did was charge my fists with some chakra as he slid into the first move his hands flat with his fingers pointed directly at his target attempting to land a blow on me and shove chakra into my body and cause damage to internal organs.

I blocked his first blow and received a partial swipe on the wrist of my right arm when his second hand came up, but thankfully the weights helped prevent most of the chakra from making it into my system. I kicked out with leg as I blocked his hands and he jumped back out of reach to avoid my deadly kick. Instead when he spun away I used the chakra in my foot to cause a large crater in the ground headed straight for Neji and he had to dodge or tumble down into the five foot wide, fifty foot deep hole I'd made with the barest touch of my heel to the earth. He jumped high into the air to the left side like I'd predicted he would and he suddenly found the shadow clone I'd made while he was dodging at his side and latching on.

He used Kawarimi no jutsu and his body turned into a log as the clone exploded with enough force to leave only slivers of the log behind in its wake.

I sniffed hesitantly and pushed chakra into my ears and extended my chakra senses as far as they would go. 'There!' Not fifty feet away and watching me cautiously was the Hyuuga prodigy.

This time, instead of waiting for him to come to me, I burst forward and charged at him, when I was not twenty feet away I moved in and arc to feint a kick to his left, but just as he'd determined the attack was going to come from the left and moved to block and counter my movement I darted to the left and came in directly from the front landing the first solid hit on him.

My chakra enhanced kick sent him back fifty feet and he slammed into something before hitting the ground with a quiet, 'Oof.' I really hadn't expected to land the hit, which had to hurt.

"Jeez Neji you must be tired this morning." I said baiting him, he hated being out done. I expected him to get back up and mutter something angrily before charging back in to spar some more, but there was no answer.

"Neji? You alright?" I called lifting the blindfold and starting forward toward the man crumpled at the base of the tree unmoving.

I removed the blindfold completely and began to run forward, hoping that he'd just been knocked out.

I knelt by his side as the others that I'd heard rushed forward. I formed hand seals and pushed green chakra into his system to see if anything was dramatically wrong with him.

I sighed in relief when I found that while he would be sore when he woke up and have a huge headache. But other than that he had just hit his head a little too hard when he'd smashed into the tree. So instead of waking him I just hoisted him up and half dragged, half carried his unconscious form over to where he would be out of the training area and set him down by where I'd left my pack pillowing it under his head before turning back to the others that were looking on in silence.

"Sakura my beautiful flower, it seems you have exhausted my eternal rival, perhaps you would care to share the vigor of youth in a friendly taijutsu match?" He asked, emphasizing the words 'friendly'. I just laughed up at him, he was asking me not to use my 'monstrous strength' on him since he always took it easy on me.

"Of course Lee, I'd love to 'spar' with you, Shishou Lee. But you know I still need some more training." I said in a seductive sing-song, Haruko made hurling motions from behind Kou and Tatsumaki at our sometimes overly cutesy antics.

"Then why don't I fan your flames of youth right now, my lovely flower?" Lee said snuggling up to me in a tender embrace using his usual training euphemism and sexual innuendo. He attempted a leer but it merely made me giggle and kiss him on the nose, he just sounded too funny whenever he tried to get in my pants.

"How in the hell did you two ever get together?" Sasuke interjected, his incredulous voice interrupting the Love-love eyes that Lee and I were making at each other. He sounded kind of disgusted and disbelieving at the same time. I just snickered into my palm before answering.

"I guess we can thank you're brother for some of that Sasuke…the jackass inadvertently shoved us right at each other." I said grinning at the disbelief on his face.

"What…?" He said, and I could tell he was trying really hard to keep a straight face while picturing his homicidal maniac of a brother somehow playing matchmaker.

"Oh, well actually Lee and I were on our way back from a jounin mission that we'd just finished together when Itachi popped out of nowhere and the usual occurred."

"The usual 'what' occurred?" He asked in his usual deadly serious expressionless manner.

"The usual fight that Itachi has come to have with me about every six months. He stops by and tries to beat me into submission and mind-rape me into oblivion."

"How is that supposed to have caused you two to get together?" He was obviously confused but, I couldn't blame him, most people were when it came to the two of us. At least at first anyway, though Tsunade hadn't seemed all that surprised for some reason. She'd just smiled and told me to enjoy myself and to not let Lee-kun drive me too crazy with his "youthful" habits.

"Well, actually, it was because we later had to go into Lee's mind to free him from the mental walls that Itachi had built inside to keep him trapped within his own mind. It brought us closer, and because of the attack Lee-kun and I started training together and…one thing led to another…and here we are, happily dating for almost six months now!" I enveloping Lee in another tight hug and nuzzled his ear with my nose while he did something similar to my own neck.

"Oh, get a room you two." Tatsumaki broke in, he was looking distinctly disgruntled, perhaps because he'd been kept in such close confines with his love interest now and unable to really touch her because her brother was always around too, watching like a hawk.

I just grinned at our captive audience, captive being the key word, because they certainly weren't rapt or avid.

"Sakura-san!" A familiar voice shouted interjecting their voice into the clearing and startling all of us out of our huddle around the unconscious Hyuuga. A familiar chuunin dropped down from the tree's several feet in front of our group and paused a moment as he panted trying to catch his breath before speaking.

"Kotetsu, what's got you in such a rush? Did Tsunade go overboard on the sake' and demand that you reorganize random teams again?" I spoke in a teasing tone grinning down at the beloved chuunin. It had been Hagane, Kotetsu who had found me on that stone bench when I was thirteen after Sasuke had decided to leave for Otogakure and gain power from Orochimaru.

Since I'd become the Godaime's apprentice, I'd gotten to know him and had come to see him in a fond light due to the constant contact between us as Hokage apprentice and 'gofer/assistant' and the fact that he had a gentle quirky manner that was easygoing and playful at the same time. He'd once admitted to playing a prank on us as genin's when we were trying to take the chuunin exam for the first time with his fellow chuunin and buddy Kamizuki, Izumo. The two goof balls had used a henge no jutsu to appear like younger versions of themselves. Then they'd tried to discourage the rookies, in a violent and sarcastic manner, to get them to back out of taking the exam. He said they'd wanted to see how much of a challenge they would get as examiners. He played pranks every now and then on younger, less experienced nins in an effort to alleviate stress and get a chuckle out of life. Which I sadly could relate to as very little could make a grown upper level nin laugh once you got enough into your career. But in Kotetsu's case it was to relieve drudgery rather than prevent burn out.

After all, he spent most of his days running here and there carrying armloads of paperwork for Tsunade Shishou to complete. But he was funny and lovable like a stray puppy dog even though he had to bear the brunt of the Godaime's wrath on a regular basis, much like Shizune her personal assistant. Of course, Shizune may look weak and nervous to an outsider, but somehow she always managed to rein in our, sometimes wayfaring Godaime, I had a hunch that it was all a front so that people would underestimate her and give her an advantage in an uneven odds battle. Surprise after all, is a great weapon.

"Jeez, Haruno, it took me forever to find you. I thought you'd be in your lab like usual. Anyway, Tsunade-sama wants to see you, something about a specialty mission. She said to bring the Uchiha too." Then he looked down at the Hyuuga lying at our feet. "Man, what'd you do to your poor sparring partner Sakura? Jeez you should take it easy on us poor mortal men…it can't be easy fighting someone with super strength." I shook my fist at him, but he'd already 'poofed' out of view, presumably back to the Hokage Tower where he had an office on the ground floor. He liked to hide in there and avoid work just as much as Tsunade did, after all.

I briefly wondered if the council might have made a decision about Sasuke's punishment. That could be one reason why he would need to be present. Still, I was confused, I'd been told specifically that I was banned from missions during my Uchiha babysitting duties.

'So why was I suddenly being given a mission? Was it that serious?' I thought to myself as I stared off into the space where Kotetsu had been crouching with a frown on my face. But instead of continuing to worry about the confusing thoughts swirling through my brain I turned back to my companions and shrugged.

"Sorry, Lee-kun, I guess we'll have to save our lesson for when I get back." I started stripping off weighted gloves and dropped them with a thump and a puff of dust on the ground beside my bag. Then I took of my heavy vest and dropped that with an even louder "Clang!" as the vest weights landed against the glove weights. Then I undid my leg guards and stuffed everything into my pack, slinging it over my shoulder. "Come on, don't wanna be late." I said quickly over my shoulder and giving a left handed wave as I walked away.

We walked into her office in silence, he hadn't spoken since we'd left the training area. Either he was upset about my company (he'd never really cared much for me as a teammate), or he was mad. He could've been mad about the fact that we'd left the training area without him actually getting to do any training. But I had a hunch that it was because of the fact that everywhere we went there were cold, almost hateful glares sent his way with the clearly muttered, "Traitor".

I really couldn't blame them for that, but at the same time I didn't like it because not only did it make me uncomfortable, but it would make my life harder if he decided to lash out at those taunting him.

Though personally I thought they were really stupid, it was exactly like poking a pissed off rattle snake with a stick and expecting to not get bit. Incredibly stupid, I would have my hands full reining in his temper until the people of Konoha could learn to tone it down a bit.

Tsunade though, didn't look at him like that, she just looked up wearily from the paperwork on her desk and waved us in. I could see that she'd been drinking the night before and pursed my lips in annoyance. The fool had fallen off the wagon again, there would be hell to pay when Shizune found out, and that was if she didn't already know.

"You requested our presence, Shishou?" I asked in a gentle voice, making sure to do my best not to irritate her by making her hangover worse than it already was.

"Hai, I did Sakura, Sasuke." She said, beginning to rifle through some papers. There were many sheets of paper scattered all over her desk in a shuffle of confusion, but she managed to find the one she was looking for and handed me the mission report for me to read.

I scanned the report and the assignment quickly and crushed the document, growling in anger, I hated failure, even in the smallest category. This would ruin my perfect record and it was all because Haruko and Kou couldn't tell the difference between a real dead body and the fake dead body jutsu that was one of Kabuto's favorite specialties.

But in the end it was my failure. Besides the fact that I was the one in charge of the squad, I should have taken the time to check the body. Especially since it wasn't my kill, but I trusted the two in their abilities and that had caused me to relax too much when I thought the danger was over. I'd even seen his technique once before so there was no excuse for me to miss it.

Of course, I'd been tired after killing the hebi sannen and hadn't been thinking too clearly, not to mention I'd been more concerned with getting Sasuke immobilized and checking on Tatsumaki to make sure he was alright.

"Okay, I'll leave within the hour and backtrack to see if I can catch his trail." I responded trying to ignore the pulsing anger at the back of my brain that signaled my inner persona wanted to come out and kill someone.

"Wait, I need you to pick a replacement for yourself while you're away." Tsunade called out as I went to turn to leave.

"Replacement?" I furrowed my brow, crinkling up my forehead. "Replacement for what?"

"For babysitting and taking responsibility of the Uchiha here, he certainly can't go with you, and he definitely needs twenty-four hour guards. He still hasn't proven his trustworthiness in the eyes of the village, and even if I threw him in a cell I'd need to post guards. This way is easier for everyone.

I just sighed, I knew of only one person I'd trust enough to replace me as Sasuke's babysitter.


	32. Chapter 32

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Ch 32

Two faced reflections…

First I went back to my apartment, with a sullen Uchiha trailing me the entire way. I was beginning to get pissed at him too, all he was doing was giving me a target to focus my anger on when he decided to lag behind and force me to wait as he slowly shuffled down the street after me.

In the end I had to refrain from dragging him down the street by the arm to get him to hurry up and instead did some of my meditative emotional control exercises to keep myself in check. But it was hard, what with Inner Sakura screaming profanities in my head about the mission failure already and then on top of that I myself was thinking, 'That damn moody brat is wasting my time…' I wanted to get going as soon as possible. It hadn't taken much to convince Tsunade that I didn't need an escort. Itachi had recently attacked, and his pattern stated that he wouldn't attack again for another five or six months.

It was a short, but loud argument, which I won in the end. Especially since we already had to have so many people staying in Konoha to watch the Uchiha and make sure he didn't pull a 'runner'. Not that he would, if anything Sasuke was a man of his word. When he said he was going to do something he did it. But he wasn't trusted by everyone and so we had an entire squad of anbu out of mission commission.

That just made it easier for me to get my way though. So I walked into my apartment and told Sasuke I'd be ready soon and then I'd take him to his new caretaker.

"Hn." That was the only response I got, I just shrugged and walked into the bathroom to take a quick shower. Of course since the time Itachi had attacked me in my bedroom I'd started keeping at least my robe in the bathroom. Good thing too because I hadn't brought any extra clothing in with me, and the usual underwear and chest wraps just wouldn't cut it in my opinion for when I had to walk back to my bedroom.

Luckily, I had learned how to be quick during showers during my anbu training and since I was especially in a hurry, the shower took all of about a minute.

I hurriedly bound my breasts back, frustrated that I hadn't thought to go out yet and get myself another sports bra to enhance the way I liked, the thick long strips of the bandage irritated me the way they tangled together and made the process take longer.

Pulling on my fresh panties and tying my robe, I quickly slid out and strode the few steps to my room. Sasuke was standing in there looking out the window. It irritated me a bit, but I'd gotten over my shyness a long time ago. I had no problem turning to the closet and pulling out my full hunter-nin uniform.

During the last mission, for the first time, I'd left the hunter-nin cloak off along with my balaclava. The only reason I'd gone so exposed was to be recognized and underestimated, I'd used the previous meetings and relationship that I'd had with Orochimaru, Kabuto, and Sasuke to my advantage.

But not on this mission. Kabuto would never underestimate me again, not after watching me kill his former boss. So this time I planned to wear my full armor and cloaking.

I slipped on the tight anbu pants and the long sleeved black elastic top I usually wore underneath my leather vest. The thin elastic material was surprisingly durable and cool, even underneath the large cloak that I normally wore overtop it. Then I sat and braided my hair tightly to my head and tucked the braid into my shirt before pulling on my balaclava to cover my unique pink hair.

I hated to wear the full face masks but it was necessary for me to wear one whenever I was out by myself. This mask at least had a wide opening around the eyes so that it didn't irritate me too much by brushing my eyebrows or the corners of my eyes. The eye opening was wide enough that it settled on the bridge of my nose and spread all the way out till it passed my temples and reached above my eyebrows to mid-forehead. Another good thing about the mask was that the front part of the mask wrapping around the face had snaps and Velcro to hold it in place. That meant that the part of the mask that stretched around my nose, chin and throat could easily be undone when I wanted to eat. That way I didn't have to fuss with my entire outfit just so I could slip some food in my mouth. It made everything more efficient too, I could eat faster and if I was ambushed I could cover up quickly before the enemy saw any of my features.

Once I'd slipped that on, I pulled my vest on and strapped on my katana's and kunai and shuriken holders. My nin-do equipment bag was tied in place at my lower back, and I then turned my attention to my guards.

I belted each of my leg and arm guards on after slipping on my ninja sandals, thankfully I'd given up on wearing those dumb heels that Tsunade wore and had resumed wearing the more comfortable and efficient sandals or boots.

I tied my mask in place and slipped my cloak on and pulled up the hood. It was at that point that I realized that Sasuke had left his position at the window. Something had drawn his attention away from the outside scenery and it hadn't been me.

At first I didn't know what he was looking at, and then I noticed him carefully turning another mask in his hands, one that was used very rarely anymore.

He spoke before I did something I again didn't expect.

"You've surprised me again, Sakura." He spoke softly, I almost didn't catch his words, and they held no disdain or even anger. I couldn't place his tone, but if I'd had to choose I would've said his voice held astonishment.

"What's so surprising?" I asked taking the mask back from him and hanging it in its usual place of reverence on the hook on the inside of the closet door, before closing it.

"I never thought that you would be in the bingo book even once, let alone twice. Though I should've figured you would paint your mask pink." His voice was flat once again, and it irked me.

"Eh? I don't know what you're talking about." I wouldn't let him get to me, after all, anbu identities were supposed to be a secret. It protected us when we left the village, no one had anything to use against us, and they couldn't find us once we took them off.

"Don't play dumb, that was always Naruto's specialty, and it doesn't suit you, Sakura. I'm talking about the fact that you're in the bingo book under two different names, neither of which is your own. The pink I understand…but how did you get the fox mask?" His dead eyes seemed to stare back into my own demanding an answer. I just glared back at him, but he couldn't see that through the mask I wore. I didn't bother to answer him though, I just stood there and let him think about it.

Sasuke himself wasn't even in the bingo book, even as an S-class missing nin (not criminal, since he'd never attacked anyone from his home village other than Naruto, who had lived to tell the tale). But he'd only gotten that rank because he was one of the two remaining Uchiha's after the massacre and the fact that he'd gone and shacked up with Orochimaru.

I on the other hand, had earned a reputation while he'd been gone. Although, my entries told practically nothing about me, and both of my descriptions were so different that so far, no one had guessed that they could possible be the same person. Thanks in large part due to my evolution as a kunoichi. I grinned behind my mask, thinking of the first time I'd seen those entries. Pointed out to me, of course, by the Hokage herself.

She'd looked particularly pleased as she opened the book and I noted the rarity of having a full page and drawing to go with my description.

Aliases: 'The Heartless Fox', 'the Konoha Pink Fox', Yoake

Confirmed as Konoha Anbu, wears bright fully pink fox mask with green whisker marks.

Village of Origin: Konohagakure

Name: unknown

Hair color: Unknown

Eye color: Unknown

Gender: Female

Height: approx. 5'10'

Weight: approx. 135 lbs

Ninjutsu: Above average

Genjutsu: Well above average

Taijutsu: Above average

Kinjutsu: Unknown

Doujutsu: Unknown

Fuuinjutsu: Unknown

Special skills and jutsu's: Pressure points, healing jutsu's, super strength, earth jutsu's, explosives and weapons expertise.

Confirmed to have been the lead antagonist in the massacre of field army ninja elite's resulting in the failure of the invasion of outlying Sunagakure territory outposts.

Also suspected of assassination on the Rain country daimyo and his elite guards…

There was a long list of things that I was suspected of doing as 'The Pink Fox'. The list was surprisingly accurate, which at first had shocked me, though there were others that had simply been blamed on me as an easy scapegoat.

I guess that's what happens when you get the reputation of unerringly silencing your target, emotionlessly killing people that are begging for their lives.

At first I was suspicious as to how the information was gathered on me. But then I mused about the fact that every time I had escaped from Itachi I felt like shouting it to the world, because it was a success, even if it was a minor one. So I figured that the same was true with my own adversaries. I looked at minor prey and simply let them escape…that was how I'd become the 'legendary Pink Fox' with a reputation as impressive as that of a sannen.

The only ones that I never let escape, were my mission targets, and those that had information I didn't want them to have. Of course, things didn't always work out the way I wanted them to. Kabuto hadn't been meant to escape. He knew a lot of information about me, and if he leaked my identity to others I wouldn't be able to operate along anymore. Of course, at least he didn't know I was 'The Pink Fox', he only knew my hunter-nin identity, which was even more elusive than my anbu identity.

As a hunter nin, I wore a mask that was unique among all hunter-nin. That was the first reason I got in the bingo book as a hunter-nin. Then I got my information updated because they thought I was some crazy missing nin that just went around executing other criminal nins for the challenge and fun of it. They had no other information, not even the village I was from. And I wanted it to stay that way.

Alias': 'The Masque of Insanity'

Description: Wears cloak and mask in imitation of hunter-nin. The mask is half black showing sorrow, while the other is white and shows joy. No village markings in evidence.

Village of Origin: Unknown, suspected to be from Kirigakure due to the use of certain Kirigakure jutsu's

Name or designation: Unknown

Code name: Unknown

Gender: Unknown

Hair color: Unknown

Eye color: Unknown

Height: approx. 6 ft.

Weight: Unknown

Ninjutsu: Unknown

Genjutsu: Unknown

Taijutsu: Unknown

Kinjutsu: Unknown

Doujutsu: Unknown

Special skills and jutsu's: Hidden mist technique, art of silent killing specialist, suspected of being a high level genjutsu user and of using medical techniques.

After finding out about my first bingo book listing, I constantly was on the lookout for updated versions of the book to check up on my status and to check out other new listings. I wasn't surprised to find the listing of my hunter-nin description, but I was surprised by the name that I was given.

Surprised, yet pleased at the same time, it was such a cool description. It made it sound like I'd played out such a dramatic genjutsu that all of my victim's just fell down to the ground foaming at the mouth from brain trauma or ran screaming into the night unable to ever hold together cognitive thought and only able to sputter the most mundane of sentences as they turned into blithering idiots for the rest of their lives.

It caused me to smile every time I thought about it, like I was doing now as I stared grinning behind my mask at the youngest Uchiha.

But I didn't speak another word, instead I just grabbed his arm and pulled him in closer to me while doing the one handed signal for the transportation jutsu.

We whirled away, my room disappeared in a cloud of leaves, just as when Haku had used the jutsu years before when he'd stolen Zabuza out of our midst after he'd used his senbon and "killed" the so called demon of the mist.

We reappeared inside the other apartment, and I shoved Sasuke onto the old couch and went looking for the errant babysitter.


	33. Chapter 33

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Ch 33

Tension in the Ranks…

"Found you!" I shouted in triumph, startling the Copy nin badly enough that he jumped and his porn went flying and he looked like he was playing hot potato with the book as he tried to recover both himself and his precious Icha Icha. I just grinned sadistically behind the mask.

"Sakura…" He growled, when he had recovered himself. Then he stopped and stared at me, probably because this was the first time he'd seen me in my hunter-nin garb. "What the hell…Sakura?" His voice held a twinge of an edge, as if he were angry that he hadn't realized it before or that he hadn't been told.

"I've been a hunter-nin for a while now, but that's not why I'm here Kakashi." I'd stopped calling him senpai after we had an especially vicious fight (It could never be classified as a sparring match) a while back that had brought out all my resentment at being ignored to the surface.

"You're the one who attacked me back then?!" He shouted, uncharacteristically showing how pissed off he was.

"It was good practice." I said chuckling and shrugging. When I'd first gotten this mask I'd been sent out on an easy mission to track, find and eliminate a missing nin. On the way back I'd run into my old sensei and decided to have a little fun with him.

We were roughly at the same level now, I actually sensed him first and trapped him in an illusion where he walked for awhile not noticing he was in it. Then when he had I'd used the fog technique from Kirigakure no Sato and used some water clones to distract him while putting him inside yet another illusion.

I'd spent the entire time, watching from a safe distance as my sensei had struggled with my jutsu's. Then he'd broken free and found me in my tree and I had to defend myself. His taijutsu was still better than mine, so I'd simply used a smoke bomb and escaped.

I had been extremely surprised when he hadn't tracked me down with 'Fanged Vengeance'. Kakashi wasn't the best tracker in Konoha for no reason after all. I had taken precautions with my escape route, but I was sure that if he'd truly been trying he could've tracked me all the way back to Konoha.

But I pulled myself out of the funny little memory and backed out of the room heading back to the living room where Sasuke was still parked on the couch, looking bored and sullen.

"You selfish brat!" His voice shocked through the air as he strode out behind me, only to stop dead at the sight of the Uchiha sitting on his couch. "So the rumors were true after all."

He had immediately gone back to his usual tone that revealed nothing, his anger hidden behind a mask in more ways than one.

"Yes, I need you to baby-sit him for awhile, I'm sure that the council will come to a decision soon. But I need to go out on an urgent mission and I can't leave him alone, despite his assurances that he won't be going anywhere. Your backup is at my apartment with Ino if you need them." I said hurriedly. "I gotta get going now." And I left in a swirl of leaves as Kakashi called for me to wait, but I was already gone. I was out in the forest racing through the tree's headed back to the fortress that Orochimaru had used as his base.

I stood outside the walls of the abandoned base, those that hadn't been killed had left after they'd found out Orochimaru was 'gone'.

But this was the starting point, I needed to know if Kabuto had come back here and if he did what it was for. So the first thing I did was use Kuchiyose no jutsu to summon Katsuyu the queen of all slugs. Ordinarily I wouldn't summon her unless I was in a dire predicament, but today I needed her for my tracking. Besides her huge size could be reduces to thousands of tiny slugs the size of my forearm, a comfortable size for me to pick one up and set on my shoulder during my investigations.

"Insanity-san, why have you conjured me? I smell snakes…Are we fighting Orochimaru?" She asked, polite as always.

"Iie, Katsuyu-sama. I have already killed the hebi sannen. I need to track down and do the same to his underling…you remember Kabuto, ne?" I replied to her mammoth form.

"Hai, I will split up to better help you." She immediately exploded in Katsuyu Bunshin no Jutsu causing a gentle rain of slugs. The wide array of slugs varied in size as some were the full grown Akamaru size and some were as small and slim as my fingers. I bent down and picked up a medium sized slug and sat it on my left shoulder, thankful for my gloves and hooded overcoat so that I didn't get the sticky slime on my fingers, it was about the size of my upper arm from shoulder to elbow. One of the really neat things about Katsuyu splitting up is that she had hundreds of little clones, and like Naruto's Kage Bunshin no jutsu they could help in several ways, when not in a battle they could help track and find any scent I wanted. Most people were blissfully unaware that slugs had great olfactory senses. She had a sense of smell almost on par with the Inuzuka and Hatake nin-dogs. But with all of the tiny clones her scent, scouting, and information gathering abilities were exponentially increased and even more remarkable.

The slugs parted in front of me as I walked into the desolate courtyard that once held up some of the best defenses and traps I and Kou had ever seen. A parade of slugs followed me inside, slowly trailing me as I made sure all the traps were still deactivated and listened to Katsuyu on my shoulder who deftly advised me as to where some of the trickier ones were. After all, she could smell the blood and distinguish its location, whereas I could only smell the heavy layer of blood that coated the air, the floor, and the hidden traps I wished to avoid.

Instead of heading deeper into the underground labyrinth this time, I was instead looking for Kabuto's quarters. While we hadn't explored the facility in depth when we were here last, I knew that Kabuto would have some sort of medical lab along with his quarters. I didn't think that I'd find anything good in his lab, but I felt the need to check there even more than I did his quarters, after all, Kabuto scent would be strongest there, and I wouldn't be able to tell one set of bed chambers from another.

It didn't take long, thankfully, I found the lab down the fourth corridor I searched. It was filled with equipment, some up to date and some extremely out of date. I found what I was looking for immediately. Something that I could hold onto that had his scent.

I knew that without delay Katsuyu had sent out her clones to follow any trail they could find, it had been several days since the evacuation and could take a while to find his trail.

While they did that, I searched through the room to find any pertinent information about Kabuto that would give me an edge if it came to a battle.

What I found instead wasn't comforting, in fact it was downright frightening, but it certainly explained some things.

I followed the trail through the tree's occasionally changing directions at Katsuyu's voiced instructions, most of her clones followed behind us at a sedate pace but I could speed ahead so long as she stayed stuck to my shoulder.

Despite the fact that the trail was days old, Katsuyu was having no trouble following Kabuto's distinctive scent. She said it was the smell of snakes and death.

We stopped momentarily, in a small clearing about an hour away from the base, where Katsuyu said she smelled another, more powerful chakra. She said that Kabuto had met up with a very dangerous ninja here.

I knew who she meant, and pursed my lips before continuing on in the direction opposite the way the other smell had gone – toward Konoha – and followed the trail that would hopefully lead me to my prey. I just hoped that Kabuto hadn't given out information on me, yet. I knew that the twisted snake apprentice had hero worshipped Orochimaru and I wouldn't put it past him to make my life, the one who was finally able to kill him, much more difficult.

Then again, with the new information I had, I wondered if my hero worship assessment was correct. But then again, once a betrayer, always a betrayer, right? At least it made sense with the silver haired man I was tailing, he had once worked for the Akatsuki member Sasori. He'd apparently been sent to spy on Orochimaru, only to switch sides – or so it seemed at the time – to work for Orochimaru. Now it seemed that he was working the same angle yet again, switching masters yet again to a more powerful protector.

But at the same time I was still confused, besides protection, what did Kabuto get out of this deal?

"Insanity-san, I smell Kabuto-san's chakra ahead, he's standing in the clearing less than fifty feet to the Northeast, it smells like he's set up a campsite and is cooking something on the fire." The dulcet tone of Katsuyu's regal voice broke the silence and I stopped my pursuit, halting on a large limb.

"Do you smell anyone else, could this be a trap to lure me in, Katsuyu-sama?" I replied quietly, not quite in a whisper, but lowering my voice enough so that it didn't carry on the wind.

"I do not know, I don't smell any other persons or chakra's nearby. Kabuto is the only person that I can sense within the range of my awareness." She sounded apologetic, almost like it was her fault that she was limited in certain fashions. I didn't blame her in the slightest though, she was a great summon and more helpful than most thought she was, but she still wasn't an all encompassing god, just a very powerful ninja familiar.

I crept forward until I was less than twenty feet away from the other medic trained ninja, making sure to mask my chakra to the best of my ability. Over the past few years, I'd learned to do it with less effort and without cutting off the blood circulation along with it. I wondered faintly if this was what Itachi did when he was completely masked and invisible to my senses, because even after fighting with him and training my senses to what they were today I still couldn't sense him until he was almost right on top of me, and only if he were using chakra to do it.

I made some hand signs and cast a layered genjutsu on my target before moving in with the hidden mist technique to cover my movements from the eyes of those both outside, and inside.

If this went my way, I would easily creep up behind him and slice his throat open, and I wouldn't have to fight anyone. That was why I loved the 'Art of Silent Killing' so much. It conserved my energy and made my job so quick and easy.

It had only been a couple of days since I'd left Konoha following the trail of this traitor, spy and murderer. With any luck I could be back in my own comfy bed by the end of the week. With one more serious kill under my belt.

But I knew that wasn't going to happen as soon as I sliced through Kabuto's neck and watched as his clone 'poofed' out of existence. I'd been had. I'd been led in and had probably walked right into their trap.

"Sumimasen, Insanity-san…" Katsuyu began before giving me the bad news I did not want to hear. "I can feel two strong chakras converging on us, one is Kabuto-san and the other is-"

I put up a hand to stop her words, while I closed my eyes for a moment and concentrated to see if I could feel where they were and prepare myself to counter attack.

I got into a defensive stance and listened, concentrating chakra into my ears and sending out my chakra to feel for the other two signatures.

Immediately, I could feel the bloodlust emanating from Kabuto, who was closing in fast from the southwest and I could feel the excitement that pulsed from Itachi as he closed in from the northwest. It left me open to run east, which was probably a trap, or I could try to run between the two and escape due west. I couldn't fight both of them at the same time, not and survive, I was good but I knew my limitations.

Or, I could just wait for them to come to me. I could stay cloaked in the mist and have them half blind while trying to fight me through the unfamiliar element. I could fight them here, after all, I was used to fighting without the use of my eyes.

So I continued to mask my chakra and waited in the thick fog for the enemy to come to me.

Kabuto paused outside the mist for a moment before plunging in to find me, and Itachi just slowly sauntered in as if he were walking up to a woman on the street that he wanted to ask out on a date, whom he knew would say yes.

I formed several water clones and sent them to deal with Kabuto before turning my attention to Itachi, who stood calmly before me surveying the way I looked in my hunter-nin garb.

I was already in a defensive stance, and as we circled each other I pulled out two weapons that I'd never used when fighting with him.

Ordinarily we fought with ninjutsu and hand to hand combat, occasionally interspersing some kunai or shuriken into our battles in the hopes that we could catch the other off guard.

But today I pulled my twin wakishazi out of their shoulder sheaths and held them in the defensive stance that Neji and Tenten had helped me with. The twin medium length katana were ideal for a close combat battle.

I could fight with a daito katana or a tanto, but neither would be that effective against the excited male I wanted to hold off. The daito was physically too long for me to bring it up in time for proper defense with this adversary, and the tanto was so short that it would allow Itachi to get much closer than I wanted him to in any fight, especially when I remembered our last encounter.

Itachi just smirked as I brought out the new weapons and continued to circle with me, it was a little disconcerting.

I had half an eye on the other battle though with my clones and Kabuto just in case he defeated them and came to back Itachi up when I was distracted.

I struck out with my right blade, swinging it in and upward arc trying to cut in under his guard and slice his abdomen open from groin to diaphragm.

But my move was blocked and knocked aside by his own katana, a daito that was only slightly longer than my twin swords. Strangely I'd never seen him with a katana until now, how had he known to bring his?

He stepped in and thrust his katana toward my chest in a swift movement forcing me to cross my own wakizashi in a defensive blocking maneuver. I however turned this to my advantage by kicking up and smashing the flat of my foot into his ribs with my enhanced strength causing him to fly backwards, cracking several of his ribs with that single blow.

But I was distracted too long by Itachi. That is the only reason I didn't notice Kabuto directly behind me forming his own offensive strike.

I twisted as fast as I could trying to defend and counter or block, but I couldn't get out of the way in time.

Pain washed through me, and my blood seemed to glisten on his kunai as he slashed again towards my throat. I could feel Itachi behind me. I was trapped.


	34. Chapter 34

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Ch 34

Two against…one?

I dropped down into a crouch between my two attackers ignoring the bleeding wound on my shoulder that had come from Kabuto's surprise attack to dispel my summon, Katsuyu. I spun my legs around knocking Kabuto's feet out from under him and followed up quickly with blocking Itachi's next attack with my leg guard.

The daito came down on my shin guard, a solid hit to my right leg guard and I winced as I felt the force of the hit. But I again ignored the pain and spun off my back once more flipping around to plant a kick in his face with my left foot while my right leg twisted around his arm knocking it aside.

Itachi jumped back in time to avoid his head from becoming a mass of brains splattered on the bottom of my foot and it gave me time to roll out of the way as Kabuto went on the offensive again.

He was fast, almost as fast as Itachi, and he kept me pinned down with his steady attacks as I rolled around on the ground dodging each in rapid succession.

I was finally able to get up under his guard though and with my own wakizashi I forced him backwards a few steps while he tried to block the thrust. Unfortunately for him, I'd trained with not only the Godaime, my teammates, anbu members, Lee, and Itachi (if you could call it training), but I'd also taken lessons from the Konoha weapons mistress, Tenten. And with all of that combined, he wasn't fast or skilled enough to prevent my blade from slipping through his palms and slicing deep into his side.

He grunted in pain and pulled himself off the blade, but I knew the wound was far from mortal, not with the gray haired mans rapid healing abilities. In that brief moment of him pulling back though, I was able to jump to my feet and launch a counter offensive.

For some reason it was as if they were taking turns attacking though, as soon as I moved in Itachi was behind me and I had to turn and block his heavy blade with the both of my own. I slid his blade though and used his force against him driving it into the ground while spinning around out of his way and behind him to use a move that Hinata had taught me. It was mostly defensive, a way to quickly avoid an opponent but it could also be used as a feint maneuver to escape an attack and inflict one back on the enemy, because with the spinning movement you ended up behind the opponent.

I balanced between the swords on my right foot as I spun and slammed my elbow into his kidney. He grunted as he flew forward into the mist and out of sight. That blow had enough chakra in it to burst his kidney.

But I didn't contemplate that very long, I ran forward where I'd last seen the other medic only to find a splattering of blood on the ground.

"Shit." That meant he'd finished healing himself and that he was probably going to attack again or that he was now healing Itachi's fresh wound.

I closed my eyes and tried to sense the two once more. It only took me a few moments to find the two chakra signatures, they were crouched together not twenty feet to my right. They couldn't mask their chakra so well while using it, and I knew that Kabuto was healing Itachi right now.

'Well, at least Kabuto's wasting some chakra.' I thought to myself as I stealthily approached hoping that I could sneak up on the two and attack them while they were distracted.

But then I felt another large chakra signature approaching, the army of Katsuyu clones were close by. I sighed in relief, I wasn't so outnumbered anymore.

So instead of sneaking up on them, I moved around them and ran towards my summons, carefully trying to formulate some kind of plan of attack.

They were so close and yet so far. I could tell that once my Katsuyu was dispelled the others had been ordered to double time it to my location.

Slugs, tended to creep along slowly. But summoned slugs had ways of moving faster when they needed to. Most people made fun of my summon, but the truth was, that Katsuyu and her subordinates were a lot faster and better in a battle for offense and defense that anyone could imagine. Kind of like the first time I'd seen Naruto's frogs, I'd thought they were pretty useless. But they were actually pretty good in battle what with Gamabunta's water bullets, his katana skills, and then there was his transformation ability. Which turned him into a cool summon in the end, even if he was incredibly obstinate.

I could feel the two men closing in on me now, running would be pointless, since I didn't have any hope of eluding the elder Uchiha.

I reached the line of slug clones and ran up to a large slug, about the size of a small house, and jumped onto her back. The other clones immediately moved into a defensive formation around us, almost like the defensive positions we'd been taught as a three man team under Kakashi.

Since we were now outside the range of my fog I dispelled the technique, so that I could conserve my chakra better.

Both men burst through the tree line headed directly for us, and I could see Itachi planned to land directly in front of me on Katsuyu's back. Meanwhile Kabuto used kuchiyose no jutsu and summoned his own snake.

'He didn't summon Manda? But then again, maybe he doesn't have enough chakra anymore after healing his and Itachi's wounds, thank the Hokage.' I breathed, thinking about the King of the Snakes, Katsuyu's equal, as I crouched and Katsuyu jumped into the air, swiftly avoiding Itachi's attack and using Zeshi Nensan to attack the snake that Kabuto had summoned, spraying acid strategically at the snake in an attempt to keep both summonee and summoner penned in.

While the snake slithered out of the way of most of the acid the other clones moved in to block that snake from attacking, their acid spray landed on the surrounding tree's melting them until there was nothing but a mixture of slime and sludge on the ground.

Meanwhile Itachi was still trying to catch up to my Katsuyu as he ran through the tree's along side us as I led him away from the other battle, having Katsuyu jump repeatedly to speed up the separation process and delay a direct attack from Itachi.

We had to dodge as he sent 'Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu' at us in an even more advanced version of the 'grand fireball technique' than I'd ever seen from Sasuke. His was always just a spout of flame emitted from his lips and hand to form a giant fireball within a ten foot radius of his body, and he had to stand still the entire time.

However Itachi's was an actual solid ball of fire, that left his lips and traveled toward his target as he quickly moved to dodge the volley of kunai and shuriken that I'd sent his way in return. The area where his fireball had landed erupted like a massive volcanic eruption about a hundred feet to my right.

'Thank you God for having a fast jumping slug to summon!' I thought once again. It seemed that I was thanking that entity a lot during this battle…

Itachi had managed to jump up on Katsuyu's back, effectively nullifying her offensive capabilities. She obviously couldn't spew any acid at him while we were both on her back.

But as he did she made another especially large leap. Her jump took us both by surprise and we both lost our balance and went stumbling around a bit trying not to fall off. Of course I stumbled more than he did but thankfully, I was quickly able to use chakra to attach myself to her back, just like with the tree climbing exercises. That genin training exercise was far more useful than I could ever have imagined. I was able to adapt it to all sorts of battle situations now and use it for something other than practicing chakra control. Not that I'd ever really needed to practice, I'd always naturally been able to judge the right amount of chakra to use.

But I was quickly brought back into the fight as Itachi, blade in hand, slashed out as if trying to cut me in half. I jumped back and side stepped a few more swings before being able to bring up my own wakizashi in defense again. He was just so fast that all I could do was dodge most of the time. I couldn't even take the time to bring up my own swords in response to his attacks.

He slashed again grazing my cloak, causing a long slice in the fabric. I undid the throat clasp and threw it over him to blind him momentarily, it was only in the way anyhow. Then I followed up thrusting my katana through the cloak and into him.

"Fuck!" I shouted, as he used the kawarimi no jutsu and my sword got stuck inside the large log that he'd used to replace himself inside my cloak.

I had to drop to one knee as Itachi came in again in again in an overhand strike aimed at my chest. My right handed wakizashi blade was still stuck in the log and I couldn't retrieve it now with him so close.

Instead I held my remaining katana with both hands and blocked his blade as it came down on my own. Pushing chakra into my arms I managed to enhance my strength enough in my left arm so that I could release the blade with my right hand and throw another punch at his abdomen.

But he jumped back, just as I'd expected, and my fist only met the air where he'd been moments ago.

This approach wasn't working, so instead I jumped down off Katsuyu's back and ran a decent distance away forming rapid hand signs once again as I moved off far enough that Katsuyu could perhaps help in the battle again.

"Tsuyoi kaze no jutsu!" I whispered, and started again forming even more hand signs. "Sen kaze kirikizu no jutsu!" I thought these words, but didn't say them. I didn't want to give away my next moves.

Instead I turned back toward Itachi as I halted and danced aside out of the way of a few more deadly strikes, before moving my hands around to direct the 'strong wind' I had summoned.

The next move was to use my 'Thousand wind slash' to direct the wind directly at Itachi and tear him into little pieces. Or at the very least, to injure him in some way so that I could slow him down.

I'd been working on my speed for years and Itachi was still faster than I was. Only Lee was possibly faster than Itachi, but then again, he still couldn't take on the missing nin.

He wouldn't be ruthless enough. Lee-kun was just like Naruto in some ways, he had no real problem with violence but he absolutely despised killing. Lee had gotten countless recommendations from different anbu teams and personnel, but he always politely thanked them and declined. That was the main reason behind him never accepting any of the recommendations to anbu, but there were others. Lee didn't want to kill people just because he was told to, he always turned down assassination missions. That was because Lee had to have a reason to kill someone, and even then he still tended to hesitate.

I'd noticed that I myself had hesitated several times in the past six months since I'd begun dating him. Before I'd been just a heartless killer when I was on missions, cold killing, I called it. But after I'd begun to see Lee in a different light, actually spend time with him and talk to him about what he liked, disliked, what he wanted out of life, I'd started hesitating. Not because my head wasn't in the mission, but because every time I went to land a killing blow, I'd seen Lee's face.

I wondered every time I killed, if Lee would think less of me for it. Naruto, I knew for a fact, thought I was a bit cold and unfeeling. But he wanted to move up in ranks just like me, and so he wouldn't hesitate to take on the harder missions like that. But his viewpoint was that it would eventually prepare him for getting Sasuke back or killing Orochimaru or Itachi, but his best excuse was that he needed to do it if he wanted to become the best Hokage Konoha had ever seen. He said he couldn't expect other's to do something that he'd never done and he himself didn't want to do.

I thought of Sasuke then, it would have been handy to have the revenge obsessed Uchiha with me right then. Weaker than his brother he was, but he would still have been useful.

I used my hands, still molded into the final seal, to direct my winds in an effort to slice off parts of the Uchiha in front of me while dodging his advances.

But it was difficult to dodge and keep my hands in the same position, pointer and middle finger on both hand touching at the tips and thumbs securely stuck together in a triangular shape, in which the top fingers directed my storm.

We were both hopping around like kangaroos now trying to avoid each other and the hurricane-like winds that I'd summoned to deal with him. I let him get in a bit closer and then took him by surprise with another gust that blew him off his feet and smashed him into a tree.

I swear he had a smile on his face as he spat out blood and then disappeared from sight. Immediately, I grew worried, did this mean he was retreating? Or was he trying something even trickier than usual?

I shifted the winds into a defensive position, and stood in the midst of my jutsu. I was in the eye of the storm so to speak. I closed my eyes again and tried to sense him, turning around in all directions.

It reminded me of the bell test that Naruto and I had done with Kakashi upon Naruto and Jiraya's return from his two and a half year training leave of absence.

I stretched out my senses, carefully sniffing the wind, but I got nothing that way, and I really couldn't hear anything over the winds howling around me.

'If he's still here, then he must be underground, and it's not like him to retreat like this.' I thought to myself as I thought about what to do.

I couldn't just smash my fist into the ground and tear it up like I'd done to Kakashi at the age of fifteen. That would necessitate moving my hands and dispelling the jutsu I was using right now. That was probably his entire goal of disappearing and evading my senses like that. He hadn't been able to touch me after I'd activated this technique, he'd want to avoid it or get me to dispel it before directly attacking me again. Of course I wasn't stupid, I would be giving up a great close to mid-range defense and a long range offensive weapon, not to mention I would've wasted all that extra chakra if I dropped it and then smashed up the ground only to find that he wasn't down there.

I sighed in frustration, all I could do was wait, he would either stay away or make a move. But I didn't have all day, my chakra wouldn't last that long, and while Sen kaze kirikizu no jutsu didn't take up a lot of chakra, activating the initial wind summon had taken a good deal of energy.

Not to mention the wound open wound on my shoulder that I had been unable to deal with yet. It was still bleeding and while it wasn't life threatening, would need my attention soon if it wasn't going to become infected or cause me to get light headed from blood loss. That was a distraction I did NOT need during this battle.

That's when I felt it, the subtle shifting in the ground under my feet. He **was** coming up from beneath me! He was pulling a Naruto!

I jumped up into the air away from his grasping hands as he sprung out of the ground reaching for my feet. He lunged at me again and I stumbled back gaping at him as I changed the direction of my jutsu and brought it down full force directly in front of me to slice and tear at him as he lunged forward for me.

The wind blades hit him directly in the face and all down his left side, but he still reached through dodging and weaving to reach me as he grabbed my arms and pulled them apart.

My heart was thumping along at a rapid pace in my almost panic, my chest heaving rapidly as I struggled with the dangerous man in front of me and kicked out at his legs only to have him jump backward and avoid the blow once more.

Then he smiled, the son-of-a-bitch actually smiled! His face wasn't manic, he wasn't grinning, it was just a gentle smile, as if it were his birthday and he'd just gotten that present he'd always wanted. It was an expression of unadulterated delight.

I think I'd have preferred the manic smile or the crazy grin, but that childlike wholesome and happy smile was terrifying. I swore my heart stopped in my chest at that moment.

That must have been why he did it, he must have known it would freak me out, because in that second I paused just long enough for him to grab me.

I pulled myself together quickly, but he'd already reached up with his quick and nimble fingers and pulled loose my mask and was trying to drag me in closer bring our chests flush against each other.

Instead, I nailed him in his instep and landed a left hook to his side as I jumped away once more, unfortunately, now without my mask.

My balaclava thankfully still covered most of my face, only my eyes were revealed, but then again, that was probably what he'd again been aiming for.

But just then Katsuyu decided to interrupt our one on one battle and send a shower of acid over towards the Uchiha. We both jumped out of the way, but I turned and ran back towards Katsuyu a bit forming some hands signs and placing my right hand on my shoulder wound to close it while I fished out a blood pill from my nin-do bag and quickly crushed it between my molars to replenish the blood I'd lost.

I turned halfway back to Katsuyu and formed more seals, the Uchiha was still combating Katsuyu's rain of Zeshi Nensan.

"Kusahi no jutsu." I shouted slamming my palms into the ground and watching as the grass all around us caught fire and spread in Itachi's direction penning him in, in the midst of the hot blaze. I jumped back and formed more seals to prevent the fire from spreading too far and turning on me as well, since I also stood surrounded by grass.

"Mizu kabe no jutsu!" I said, again slamming my palms down into the earth to pull water from the ground and form a wall of water around myself and the fire closest to me.

The wall was only a few feet high, ending at about my waist, but it only needed to contain the fire and keep it from spreading outward to the grass beyond so it didn't need to be very high. Of course, ordinarily it would be higher as a defense against other ninja's but today it was for containment, and so it was spread wide out across the field low and thin. There just wasn't enough water underground to build a better defense should I have needed it.

The heat of the fire was dwindling as the grass was scorched to nothingness, I looked out at my handiwork and stared at where Itachi had been standing. But there was no sign of him, no body, nothing. He had again disappeared.

"kusoimaimashii inken kusottare." I cursed under my breath as I wiped the sweat off my forehead with the back of one hand.

Pain shot through my head, then it shot down my spine and I opened my mouth to scream, only no sound came out of my mouth.

I heard shrieking, but it was all within my own head. I struggled, but I could no longer move my own body. The pain was too much and I began falling into the black hole.


	35. Chapter 35

The Isolation of Inner Sakura

Ch 35

Inner Sakura Released!

Everything seemed fuzzy as I fell into the darkness. The pain stopped, in fact, I felt as if I were floating. I wondered fleetingly if this was what it was like to be in the womb. In the dark, the buoyant and weightlessness surrounded by nothing, yet everything. Distantly I heard the cackling of Inner Sakura, yet strangely, her voice no longer resound in my head.

This left me confused for a little while. Where was I? Who was the owner of that voice, that voice that sounded so much like my own? But most importantly why couldn't I hear my inner persona inside my head like usual?

I'd spent my entire life with that voice in my head, and sure sometimes she was annoying, but she was my constant companion and confidante. Like my own invisible best friend who talked to me in secret…even when no one else would. I didn't like the silence in my head, it was terrifying, the thought of walking through the world without the person who affected my life the most. It was like when my father had died, the sudden and lingering silence that was so heavy it could be felt.

The cackling continued as I floated in the limbo of darkness. Was this some genjutsu?

I tried to put my hands together to dispel it, only to find that I didn't have any hands.

I started to panic, but the emotion seemed to be overridden by a sudden wave of desire. I would have been panting and groaning, if only I had a body to do either of those things with. I probably would have fallen on the ground and torn my own clothes off in a sudden rush to find that release of ecstasy called orgasm. Yeah, the arousal was that strong.

It was as if I'd been self stimulating for over an hour until I'd worked myself into a state, only now I couldn't find a way to push myself over the edge.

'What is going on?!' I thought. My thoughts screamed and echoed around me and the cackling got louder.

"Shut up, it's my turn to play." Came my own voice, but I identified it as Inner Sakura's from the inflection and her manner of speaking.

'No! What's happening! I want to know now!' I thought back at her as loud as I could.

"I said, SHUT UP! Can't you see I'm busy?!" She snapped back at me, and I cowered (if you could call it cowering since I didn't seem to have a body any more) away from her harsh words and tone.

But then suddenly I could see it, I understood, somehow we had switched places. Inner Sakura was now on the outside for the first time in our entire lives.

I hadn't even known that was possible, I mean, how could it? It certainly didn't make any sense to me, but it had happened nonetheless.

I concentrated a little, and faintly I could see what was happening. Sakura stood in front of Itachi, Kabuto was behind us.

'This must be what it's like to have Byakugan.' I thought to myself as I saw everything around my body, I could see three-hundred-and sixty degree's just like the Hyuuga's are purported to do with their bloodlimit through activating their eye technique.

All I could do was stare in astonishment. 'Hey, if this is how you see stuff everyday how come you never tell me when there's an attack coming from behind?!' I shouted back at the other part of myself as she formed seals that I'd never seen before. I didn't get an answer from her, as she simply knelt down on the ground, and bowed her head as if she was kneeling in front of the fire country daimyo.

But that's not what she was doing, I after all, could feel what she was feeling. And she was excited, so much so that it was crossing over to me. Apparently this was a real high for her, being outside and fighting a real battle.

Itachi and Kabuto charged in, Kabuto now had Itachi's katana and Itachi had several shuriken in each hand.

'Look out, behind us!' I shouted as Kabuto swung the daito.

But my worry, turned out to be unnecessary. Kabuto stopped mid-swing as if stopped by invisible hands, he just stared down at us. At first I wasn't sure why, but then I looked down and saw something that astonished even me.

I no longer had a body, there was no Sakura, instead it was as if I'd used Kawarimi no jutsu with an entire tree. It was as if I'd uprooted and replanted a gigantic cherry blossom tree right where my body had lain.

The tree stretched upward and the branches, boughs and limbs reached toward the sky and back down again, filled with the pink blossoms and green leaves.

'This isn't genjutsu or ninjutsu…What is this?' I asked the other part of myself who I'd unwittingly given control over to. "How is it even possible to turn yourself into a tree? A real tree out of our own body…"

"You'll see." She said playfully, giggling at her own joke. "Just watch, I'll show you how powerful we can truly be!"

So I watched, it wasn't like I had much of a choice, but still I was curious and wanted the answers to so many questions.

As I looked on, numerous petals flew off of the tree and formed four…clones?

'Hanabira clones? How do those work?' I thought at her watching as the clones dropped to ground just as I would've, only their hair was loose and flowing down their backs. 'Are you trying to sex them up or something? That's so not going to work on Kabuto, maybe on that perv Itachi, but I doubt it.'

"Just you wait and see. Besides, you shouldn't underestimate our skills." Her voice returned laughingly before going silent again.

I watched as the clones approached Kabuto and Itachi. Two clones for each man. The clones approaching Itachi behaved completely different from the ones charging at Kabuto.

The clones immediately began attacking the grey haired katana wielding healer. While on the other side of the tree the clones sauntered up to him seductively while trailing their fingertips upwards from their hips, chest and to their breasts. For the first time, I noticed that the clones while still wearing the anbu gear, didn't appear to have bound breasts and instead filled out the uniform so that their breasts strained against the leather. It was so much like when I'd come back from the last mission and Tsunade had 'accidentally' cut off my chakra bra that I wondered if that was where this inspiration had come from.

Kabuto was fighting both of my clones, but it looked more like they were taunting him and playing games with the man. He'd lunge at one of them only for her to dance back and laugh at him while the other would move in and kick him squarely in the seat of his pants so that he would stumble forward. Then both of them would laugh uproariously and it would start all over again.

With Itachi, the two women would occasionally attack or dodge one of his strikes, but unlike with Kabuto, these clones would 'cop a feel' every time he missed.

He had a red flush on his face, but I couldn't tell whether Itachi was enjoying it or getting pissed.

The echoing voice of Inner Sakura sounded outward booming across the field as if she were her own loud speaker or perhaps as if she were a god granting divine information from the heavens.

"You'll never beat me that way. Come and get me!" She teased and chortled at her own clever repartee.

Apparently Itachi was getting pissed, and he finally managed to put a kunai through one of the clones. The clone shrieked and all the petals fluttered out away from the weapon as if acid had dissolved her insides.

Except that wasn't quite accurate, the petals all flew away from the weapon as if blowing away with the wind, only to reform once more whole and unblemished a few feet away.

'Amazing.' I thought to myself. 'It's even superior to Kage bunshin, Bunshin Bakuha, or even my own developed keiryaku bunshin. Of course they were all different in their own ways, my 'trick clone' technique being a different and more advanced form of the other two. It allowed my clones to steal chakra from the enemy and feed it back to me, but it also exploded when the enemy dispelled it. Now, the petal clones didn't do either of those, but on the other hand, they were like Naruto's Kage Bunshin, only they couldn't be dispelled. So long as I had chakra to mold into those petals I could hold them forever.

I was brought out of my thoughts as Kabuto abandoned his impossible to defeat clones and charged at the trunk of the tree, aiming to impale it, in the hopes that my jutsu would fail and they would yet again be faced with only one, real person.

The boughs of the tree shook and leaves showered down on both opponents. Only they weren't just leaves, they were chakra infused and had razor-sharp edges, like a thousand miniature katana blades that could be flung at the enemy. Much like the sword Kabuto was holding onto, only much more lethal.

Itachi instinctively dodged the deadly leaves and deflected the rest with a kunai. Kabuto however was not so lucky. He took several of the quick and dangerous little things in his chest, arms and legs before he could dodge out of the way.

His clone opponents were right there to 'welcome' him back with a kick to the rear. He swiped at them with his katana and backed further away from the tree trunk.

Of course, Itachi, on the other hand, was now thoroughly engrossed with the shower of leaf projectiles on his side as he battled to get closer to where he had last seen my real body.

"Let's step it up a notch, shall we?" Inner Sakura chuckled, I had this image of her in my own mind of her teehee-ing into her hand as she snickered at our outmaneuvered opponents. She wasn't actually taking this battle seriously, she was just playing with them.

It made me wonder, for the first time, what she could really do if she became serious.

A rumbling briefly shook the ground underneath the feet of the two S-class criminals, before long tentacle like roots sprung up out of the earth.

Debris was strewn everywhere, and a dirty cloud puffed up with all the dirt flying into the air. It was like my own version of the kirigakure no jutsu, and I wondered for the first time why my Inner Persona had techniques like this, and even more so, why she hadn't shared the knowledge of them with me.

"You don't understand yet?" Her voice sounded within my black prison-like world. "You CAN'T do these techniques, and I CAN'T teach them to you. I'll tell you all about it later…"

Then her voice was gone again and the roots were wrapping tenaciously around Kabuto while Itachi dodged and dove around the roots, leaves and clones.

Kabuto was trying to pull out the now soft leaves from his body, without the chakra the leaves it seemed went right back to being soft and delicate. That made them harder to pull out because they tore apart and parts of them were getting stuck in his wounds much to his aggravation. Of course, it was a little harder for him to concentrate on getting all the leaf parts out while the root was holding him and waving him in the air as if the tree were some exuberant child with a lollipop. And then on top of that the clones jumped up and were poking him sporadically, he finally gave up and started screaming profanities at his tormentors. I just giggled to myself at the sight.

I wondered for a moment where the chakra in the leaves had gone, but only briefly, my other half showed me a mental image of the leaves and the poison that would seep into his body and attach to his organs once the leaves had penetrated his flesh.

For a second I wondered if that would be effective against the other medic, he did after all, have remarkable healing abilities. So far as I knew, it was limited to cell regeneration but, I didn't know if he also had some way to fight poison too, of course, the poison in our leaves was unique – so even if he did his antigen might not work at repelling it.

Of course, while all of this was going on, Itachi was wasting no time attacking the outstretched roots and lunging toward the base of the tree.

But unfortunately for him, he wasn't fast enough to avoid all of the swinging and flying weapons launched at him. He took a root to the chest and flew twenty feet away, hitting the trunk of a tree at the edge of the clearing. He was followed by Kabuto, who was tossed directly into the Uchiha.

They both hit the ground with a muffled, 'thud'. Itachi was immediately on his feet again, while Kabuto struggled to get into an upright position while tugging on Itachi's pant leg.

I could see that Kabuto wasn't doing too good from here, but Itachi seemed to be content to hurl himself back into the battle and continue fighting with me in this state.

However Inner Sakura wasn't out of Surprises apparently, as soon as he'd started to stand I felt vibrations all around.

I paused briefly in my enemy surveillance to look exclusively at what my own body was doing. My body, the tree that is, was now completely above ground and using its roots to mobilize itself. The roots swung this way and that, landing heavily on the ground and shattering it like one of my chakra charged fists.

Both Kabuto and Itachi watched with trepidation as I approached. Well, Kabuto looked positively terrified, while Itachi just looked slightly pale. I was betting that he had his usual expressionless mask in place, not that I could tell from that far away with all the blood covering him.

My tree form couldn't move nearly as fast as my human form, in fact, the lumbering movements were slower than a summoned snail oozing along the forest floor.

Itachi and Kabuto were suddenly gone though and I was faced with five of his Bunshin Bakuha to cover his retreat.

I looked over the charging clones warily and immediately was on the defensive. My own four hanabira clones stopped lazing about and charged at one clone each.

Explosions rang out all over the field in a chain reaction as Itachi's clones engaged in combat with my own. The sudden burst of heat and fire along with the force of the blast destroyed the petals, they caught fire and were burnt to ash within seconds. The last one, swifter than the rest, managed to use the distraction of the destruction around him to dive past my outer defenses and wrap himself around my trunk.

The subsequent explosion sent excruciating pain thrilling through my body and set my ears to ringing so that all I could hear was the loud echoing screaming coming from outside, getting louder and louder by the second.

Then all of a sudden, I could smell burning hair and flesh, my stomach turned over violently and I retched all over the ground helpless to prevent the vomit from splattering all down my front in the process. Every piece of flesh on my body was aching, stinging and tingling in varying degrees of hurt. My eyes were burning, and my legs felt like jelly as I struggled to get to my feet, wondering dazedly why it was so hard. Instead, I only managed to crawl a few feet forward before collapsing.

My last conscious thoughts before I surrendered to the agony were that I had at least made it out of the circle of vomit and didn't have to lie in my own bile. The next thought, was that I couldn't let myself die yet. I still had too much to do…

I awoke to pain. The pain was throbbing through my chest, my arms and legs, and took up a lot of room pounding away behind my eyes.

But the pain let me know that I was alive. Still, it took me awhile to get myself up from its prone position on the ground.

I sat in a field, confused for a few moments before remembering what had happened and why I was there. I tried to survey the damage to my own body, but realized that I didn't have enough chakra left to even do the most minor of diagnostic's on myself.

I settled for a cursory outward assessment. My body was coated with blood, most of it my own, in varying states of seeping out of my wounds.

I knew I'd never make it home with the wounds I had, not without being able to heal them, not unless I had help. I immediately felt for the equipment pouch I always kept at my hip and struggled sluggishly to pull it off and in front of me so that I could search for what I needed.

My fingers were shaking so badly, that I could barely open the top flap of the pouch. I struggled again to pull out the small travel kit I kept for emergencies like this. It was the first time I'd ever used it, and for once I was grateful for the extra space it took up in my nin-do pouch.

I sighed in relief when the pouch came free and I could pull out the items I needed.

First I pulled out the tiny packages that looked like they held large flower seeds in them. Three separate parcels containing the pills. The blood, food and soldier pills were really my only hope in this situation. So, I popped all three into my mouth and ground the nasty tasting supplements up between my molars before swallowing them.

The boost in chakra from the soldier pill was immediate and relieving, and I pulled out the Chakra bandages next. I still didn't have enough chakra to do anything major, but I at least had enough now to activate the release jutsu on my healing bandages.

It took forever to wrap the bandages around my body and would have been impossible if I hadn't just taken a soldier pill and a food pill.

Still, I had to struggle with the heaviness of my own limbs and the shaking of my fingers that came from blood loss, exhaustion and pain.

By the time I got to the point where I could force my hands into the proper seal positions, 'Dragon, Hare, Dog', I was thoroughly disgruntled, both with myself and with Itachi.

I was pissed off and upset with myself for slacking my attention during a fight even a little, it had nearly killed me. I shakily got to my feet and went in search of my swords, mask and cloak. I certainly couldn't go anywhere like I was, my clothes were in tatters and I was very recognizable without my mask and cloak.

It took forever to find my mask, but my swords were right where I'd left them, one still imbedded in my cloak and the log that Itachi had used to replace himself when I'd thrown my cloak into his face.

I cursed loudly when I cut my finger as I clumsily tried to sheath my wakizashi blades. By the time I was done and had covered myself I had to wrap another bandage around my hand. Unfortunately I had already run out of my precious supply of Chakra bandages and had to settle for simply covering the wound and stopping the bleeding naturally. Thankfully it wasn't a truly large wound.

Then I made my way towards Konoha to inform Tsunade that I had failed. Again. And then I would have to tell Sasuke the bad news, that wasn't going to be fun.

But that was all that kept me going as I stumbled along trying to move as quickly as I could. I just had to make it back home to Konoha and give them the intelligence that I'd gathered, I wouldn't let something this important die with me. I wouldn't allow myself to die until I'd fulfilled my duty.


End file.
